Actress Sreelekha Mitra slams KIFF after no invitation, asks if there’s any political reason

Sreelekha Mitra has never been shied away from expressing her political views on social media, often taking a dig at the West Bengal government. Now, the actress has once again slammed the state government for not getting any invitation from the 27th Kolkata International Film Festival. The ‘Once Upon A Time In Calcutta’ actress took to her Facebook handle to express her disappointment.

She wrote, “#kiff2022 theke kono invite asheni emonki ekta phone porjonto na. Eta ki amar political opinioner karone na onnyo kono oggyato karon ache? #TMC#tmcgovernment ki vindictive mairi #kiff2022.” Within moments the post became viral with fans extending their support for the actress. As Sreelekha wondered about the reason behind this negligence and asked whether this decision was taken because of her political views, many flooded the comment box taking a dig at the KIFF organizing committee. Interestingly, many popular faces including Subhashree Ganguly, Paoli Dam, Koushani Mukherjee, Sayantika Banerjee, Ditipriya Roy were spotted at the inauguration ceremony of the 27^th Kolkata International Film Festival on Monday.
When we reached out to the actress, she seemed somehow relieved that she didn't have to attend KIFF, "Frankly speaking I don't have any regret. I am relieved. What if I was invited and had to do all the drama on the stage? But yes I feel a bit sad that our film 'Once Upon A Time A Calcutta' won't be screened at KIFF. People won't get the chance to see this beautiful film that we did. I have already been nominated for Best Actress award at the New York Indian Film Festival. So, you can imagine. I don't have to say anything."
Meanwhile, Sreelekha recently got nominated for the Best Female Actor award at the prestigious New York Indian Film Festival 2022 for her stellar performance in Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s critically acclaimed ‘Once Upon A Time In Calcutta’. The film which has earlier visited many festivals, including the 78th Venice Film Festival last year, is also on the roster at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.

She also won the Best Film and Best Director awards in the short film category for her directorial ‘Ebong Chaad’ at the recently concluded Kolaj Bengaluru Bengali Film Festival.