Poll panel stays release of film on Mamata till May 19

Three days before its scheduled date of release, the Election Commission asked the makers of Baghini, a Bengali film that dramatizes the life of Bengal's chief minister Mamata Banerjee, to halt all promotional activities and stay its release till the national elections culminate on May 19.


The film was slated for a May 3 release coinciding with the ongoing

Lok Sabha

elections in the state. However, leaders of the opposition parties had gone knocking on the Election Commission’s door seeking a ban. Members of the CPM politburo, steered by party general secretary

Sitaram Yechury

, had met the chief election commissioner in Delhi asking for a ban on the film’s trailer on grounds of “propaganda”. A second letter had followed from the state vice-president of the BJP, Joy Prakash Majumdar requesting the Election Commission to “review the biopic on similar lines” as it was done in the case of the biopic on the Indian Prime Minister titled ‘PM Narendra Modi’.

On April 30, producer and writer of the film Pinky Paul Mondal received a letter from the office of the chief electoral officer of

West Bengal

asking the makers to take down the trailer and all publicity material of the film. The letter cites the EC’s Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that is meant to “facilitate a level playing field for all political parties and candidates” and “ensure that the power of media is not used in a manner that could affect the electoral process.”

The letter also mentions similar “complaints” about films namely ‘NTR Laxmi’, ‘PM Narendra Modi’ and ‘Udyama Simham’ which are claimed to either “diminish or advance the electoral prospect of a political party or candidate in the garb of creative freedom.”

Describing such creative content as “surrogate publicity by the candidate or political party”, the Commission condemned Baghini’s producer for “purported violation” of the MCC and ordered for the removal of any poster, or audio visual publicity material of the film from the public domain.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mondal visited the EC office to submit their compliance letter along with a note on the film’s storyline and the entire script to establish their claim that the film is “a work of fiction that is inspired and adapted” from Mamata Banerjee’s life and “not a biopic”.

“We didn’t have a choice but to follow EC’s order and hold the release till May 19. If the trailer could have such a strong impact, I’m sure we can wait a little longer,” said Mondal.