A press meet was organized to let the media know that Bengali film Dictionary that was selected for screening at the 51^st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was rejected one day later due to a spelling mistake. Gracing the press meet was the director of the film, Bratya Basu and the producer Firdausal Hasan.

According to Bratya Basu who is an actor-director and also the education minister of West Bengal, this decision is a politically influenced decision. He explained in detail how he was notified of the film’s selection on 5^th November and then a day later, he found that the film was omitted from the list.

There were 25 films in total. 5 among them were Bengali films. in the updated list, there were 24 films and Dictionary was the only film omitted from the list.

There was a discrepancy in the two recommendation letters- one sent by the producer and the other by the Film Federation of India. And hence this cancellation happened.

Hasan said that the Film Federation of India had made the error and they had expressed their regret. They had even urged them to reconsider this decision. But IFFI was adamant and said no changes could be done.

Bratya Basu also added that the higher authorities might have come to know about his political identity after reports in media came out. The actor-director also said that he will never send his film again to IFFI till BJP Government was in power. He also stressed on the fact that despite such hindrances, he will continue his support towards Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee.

The film ‘Dictionary’, is based on stories (Baba Hoya and Swami Hoya) by noted Bengali author Buddhadeb Guha and features Abir Chatterjee and Nusrat Jahan in pivotal roles.

Priyanka Dutta