KOLKATA: Swarup Biswas’s arrest has exposed a long-standing culture of bullying in the Bengali film industry. As state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya pointed out—a sentiment widely shared across Tollywood—complaints had quietly piled up for years, but the previous government’s tenure left victims too terrified to speak out. Within the TMC, only star MP Dev dared to challenge his authority.According to Dev, “I do not know what it is but it was next to impossible for TMC to remove Swarup.” Actor and BJP MLA Rudranil Ghosh told TOI, “Cops didn’t even let his name be mentioned in a complaint. Such was Swarup’s clout.”On April 7, the deep-rooted climate of fear was exposed by an assistant makeup artist and single mother of two who has held a guild card for ten years. She took to Facebook Live to detail a horrifying ordeal. Having been denied work for two years by guild secretary Bapi Malakar, she was told that survival in the industry dictated that one had to be a “favourite”. A March 23 letter to Biswas seeking answers yielded no response—only severe retaliation. On April 4, an intruder allegedly threatened to murder her and stage it as a suicide if she didn’t withdraw her complaint. Maintaining she had done nothing wrong, she refused. The very next day, after spotting three unidentified men surveilling her home, the terrified lady fled into hiding. “I only wanted a job—why should my life be threatened for that?” she pleaded in her FB video. Dev recalled on Friday that after the video went viral, he personally pledged his full support to her while urging her to go to the police. However, she faced institutional apathy at the Golf Green police station on April 10. “On April 5, a shooter on a bike came to kill me, but I wasn’t allowed to write this in my complaint,” she told TOI on Friday. Fearing she would become a “garlanded photograph” if the TMC retained power, she prayed for a regime change. She recounted her trauma at a May 20 Technicians’ Studio meeting, where Ghosh also pledged his support. “I approached the cops again on Thursday. They took my complaint seriously. I am happy he has been arrested,” she told TOI. For Dev, Biswas’s downfall is a much-needed industry cleansing. Recalling his solitary pushback during the TMC regime, he noted, “I fought with him head-on even when TMC was in power. No one else had that guts. Swarup was miffed when I chose not to vote in the screening committee meeting. He retaliated by threatening to block my film’s release unless I engaged with the committee. I refused since I didn’t understand why he would decide when my film would release.” Biswas escalated the feud by spearheading complaints, even approaching the Lalbazar CP with allegations regarding Dev orchestrating behaviour of his fan clubs. “He began arbitrarily banning artists and even producers. I emailed the Federation and Bumba-da (Prosenjit Chatterjee) to question his authority. I gave a 72-hour deadline for Bumba-da to intervene regarding the bans,” Dev said. When his attempts yielded no result, Dev openly defied the mandate and announced casting Anirban (Bhattacharya) in his next film. Matters reached a stage when Dev was asked to tender an apology on social media. “Didi had sent me to Aroop Biswas. I was told they run the industry. I was surprised and had replied saying that I too belong to the same party and work hard for it. I guess, it was all about addiction to power. Swarup was so arrogant that he had got 20 high-profile directors to send a letter to Didi asking her to make him a candidate. Swarup had told his team that if TMC came to power, I too would be banned. His arrest is a result of his karma. The girl who was so scared that she couldn’t leave her house finally went to the police station and complained against him. This is the victory of the new government,” Dev said. “But the battle is over after his arrest. I take no pleasure in fighting a man who can no longer fight back. I can’t tell him what damage he did to the industry,” Dev added.
