On April 26, Ladlee Mukherjee’s film “Whose land is it anyway?” was screened at Nandan II. The film is based on land acquisition in Singur for Tata’s small car factory.
Soon after the screening, a letter from the Chief Executive Officer, Nandan, suspended all films to be screened on April 27. It said the film directly violates the ethical principle of Centre-state relationship and it is objectionable to include such controversial films in the Indian Panorama. The CEO, Nandan, was not available for comment.
“In the documentary, we tried to judge development that comes at the cost of basic human rights. We have tried to debate the viability of Special Economic zones,” said Swati Chakraborty, executive producer of the film, which has been screened in Goa, Mumbai and Delhi.
“The documentary is about how the West Bengal Government helped Tatas acquire land in Singur. And so the film festival was scrapped. This can be termed a fascist atrocity,” said Tarun Sanyal, a member of the forum.