DEHRADUN: The newly-constituted Uttarakhand Film Development Council seems to have hit troubled waters even before it has started functioning. A day after chief minister Harish Rawat constituted the council with Tigmanshu Dhulia as its vice-president, the filmmaker in a letter to the chief minister on Saturday expressed his inability to take up the post.
The director of ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ wrote in his letter that “I appreciate the honour bestowed upon by me by the government recognizing my credentials as a filmmaker and an Uttarakhandi but I feel a certain amount of discomfort accepting this position, considering the current sensitive situation in the state and the implications that may be construed from the appointment.” Sources said that one of the reasons why Dhulia may have chosen to stay away was that bickering had started amongst the members of the newly-constituted council regarding his appointment as its vice-president.
According to officials, one of the members, Manish Verma, had on Saturday tendered his resignation from the council allegedly refusing to work under Dhulia and TV actor Hemant Pandey, who had also been made a vice-president of the council. In a letter to CM Rawat, Verma, who had directed two Garhwali features films, 'Anjwaal' and 'Hello UK', said that he was a senior filmmaker and had also served as a minister of state during the first Congress government headed by former CM ND Tiwari. Therefore, considering his seniority, the post of a member in the council was not an appropriate one for him.
While Dhulia could not be reached for comment as his phone remained unavailable throughout the day, Hemant Pandey when contacted, said that he was travelling since the past few days and was not really aware about the whole situation. He added that he could not comment on the reasons for the resignation of either Dhulia or Manish Verma. Meanwhile, CM Harish Rawat chose to play down the matter saying that Dhulia and Verma may have resigned but the council had not yet accepted their resignations.
"These resignations are nothing but a part of the initial problems which every newly-constitued council has to face. They are just teething troubles which we will be able to resolve soon,” he said.
(Inputs by Shivani Saxena)
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