Film frat shows its political colour ahead of Bengal polls

Kolkata, March 3 : As election temperature soars in poll-bound West Bengal, political parties have opened their doors to local cine-stars, virtually offering them an alternative career path to join the mainstream electoral politics.
A slew of Bengal Tollywood celebrities have recently joined both the camps of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress and its arch-rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Last week, actor Sayani Ghosh, Kanchan Mallick, director Raj Chakraborty and many other members of Kolkata’s film and television fraternity had joined the ruling formation. Actress Sayantika Bandopadhyay also joined the Trinamool in the presence of state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee on Wednesday.
Interestingly, Trinamool Congress on Wednesday organised a unique workshop for celebrities where party’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien trained all the newly inducted Tollywood personalities how to do campaign and win hearts of the general voters.
The workshop, which went on for over one-and-a-half-hour, was attended by Chakraborty, Sudeshna Roy, Manali Dey, Sourav Das, Ranita Das, Sreetama Bhattacharya and many others.
According to sources, the celebrities were told not to indulge in personal attacks and talk more about the development schemes that the Trinamool Congress had introduced in Bengal in the last 10 years.