Tollywood producer stops film shoot after alleged threat, takes a dig at guild bullies – exclusive!

Producer Rana Sarkar has landed in trouble once again. Among many of his upcoming films, camera started rolling for Mainak Bhaumik’s ‘Behaya’ on August 26. And now, in a shocking turn of events, shooting of the film starring Sonamoni Saha, Pratik Sen and Priyanka Sarkar in the lead has been postponed. The reason behind the shooting being stopped has irked many industry insiders. As per industry sources, the shooting of ‘Behaya’ had to be stopped after receiving threats from the suppliers.

A close source from the film unit shared with ETimes that a certain section of the suppliers allegedly threatened the vendors as they didn’t get any shooting equipment. Speculation is rife that they are alleging that producer Rana Sarkar owes them payment.
However, when Rana Sarkar was contacted he insisted, “If there’s any payment due please go to the court or can go for legal step. Why are you disrupting a film’s shooting? I have decided to stop the shooting for the time being. I think in Bengal even if you want to invest you can’t do because of guild bullies. That’s why you won’t see many people investing in Tollywood these days. I have a number of projects in hand. If things go like this, I will have to look for other states, such as UP, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand. We all know production houses often get subsidies in these states to make films.”

Not only 'Behaya', Rana Sarkar is producing a number of upcoming Bengali films including Srijit Mukherji's 'Loho Gauranger Nam Re', Parambrata Chattopadhyay's 'Barud O Adalot' and Rahul Banerjee's 'Kolkata 96' to name a few. After what happened with 'Behaya' shoot now uncertainty looms large on these films as well. However, Rana has claimed that he will start the shooting as soon as things are worked out.