Artist claims Satarupa Sanyal 'misused' his works

Artist

Shashank Ghosh

recently filed a complaint against filmmaker Saturupa Sanyal for unlawful exploitation of his work. The director has been blamed for illegal usage of Shashank Ghosh’s

paintings

in her project without providing him due payment and credits. According to the claims made by Shashank, Saturupa Sanyal wanted to purchase his paintings last November. Although, when the painter sent his artworks to Saturupa’s place she returned the same without any purchase. The artworks were sent back after a few months. Much later, to his surprise, Shashank found two of his paintings among the seven artworks that he sent to Saturupa, in almost every scene of her

short film

, Happy Valentine’s Day, days after his paintings were returned post getting rejected by the director. Shashank tried to reach out to Saturupa through phone calls and emails to settle the matter but according to the artist, the latter refused to reply despite several attempts made by him. This compelled Shashank to issue a legal notice against her. We contacted Saturupa Sanyal and she told us, “He is

blackmailing

me. I have read everything that he had said about me and all I can say is that he is making up false stories. I would not comment anything beyond this at the moment.”Shashank, who stands steady with his claim, has already lodged a legal complaint in Lake Police Station. On contacting Shashank Ghosh, he said,"I am extremely upset and frustrated over the issue and would not like to comment further on the matter because it is taking a toll on my health."