Bangladesh, West Bengal must promote Bengali films

Bangladesh and West Bengal must work jointly to promote Bengali films, acclaimed film director Gautam Ghosh said Tuesday.

"A single window Bengali film production centre between Bangladesh and West Bengal must be evolved. Bangladesh, West Bengal and Bengali dominated southern Assam and Tripura must work jointly to boost Bengali films," he told reporters here.

He said this after releasing a book on 100 years of Indian cinema, edited by journalist Manas Chakraborty.

Ghosh said: "Efforts are on to set up a single window Bengali film production centre between Bangladesh, West Bengal and Bengali dominated areas (in other states)."

He said Hindi films alone were not national films.

"Films made in any Indian language must be treated as national film. Hindi films are getting too much importance than the films made in other languages. This is unjust."

Accompanied by Tripura's Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Bhanu Lal Saha, the award winning film maker asked the government to support film makers and producers to ensure that good movies were made.

The minister supported Ghosh.

"When good films had not been produced for a certain period in time, West Bengal's then Left Front government came out with financial support and many high quality films got produced.

"Without sponsorship of the government, making good films is a very tough job."