Even as actress Bidita Bag is preparing for the release ofher first Bollywood film ‘From Sydney With Love’ this week, she is all shakenby memories of a recent village attack, where she witnessed the fury of a mobwho mistook her for being a Maoist or a Naxalite.
While renowned filmmaker Prakash Jha, who is directing hisnext movie Chakravyuh on Naxalites, has stated that he has met them over theyears, Bidita went through a terrifying experience of a more dangerous kind onthe sets of a Bengali film called ‘Chokher Pani – Tears of Nandigram’!
Recalling her horror, the actress says, “I was shooting for thisBengali film in the sensitive Nandigram village in West Bengal some time ago,when a group of very unruly people thought that the unit comprised of armed Naxalites.”
“The villagers started shouting – ‘Yeh log film shooting kenaam par logon ko hathiyaar chalane ki training de rahein hain’ (‘These peopleare providing combat arms training in the garb of a film shoot’). Before wecould explain anything, a wild rumour spread and suddenly a mob emerged andstarted attacking the unit members,” recalls Bidita.
The actress remembers seeing agitated people chase otherswith swords and even burning nearby houses in a mindless riot, as she ran andhid inside a rice field to save her life!
Bidita’s publicist Dale Bhagwagar adds, the actress toldhim, she was too shaken, witnessing such animalistic violence and that even thelocal police and media termed her a Maoist. “Bidita felt helpless andtraumatized in the village. But luckily for the unit members, she did not giveup shooting for the film,” he remarks.
As the situation calmed down, the actress is reported tohave completed the shooting schedule under police protection and safetyassurances by The Rapid Action Force (RAF); the specialized wing of the IndianCentral Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
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