Even as actress Bidita Bagis preparing for the release ofher first Bollywood film FromSydney With Love this week,she is all shaken by memoriesof a recent village attack,where she witnessed the furyof a mob who mistook her forbeing a Maoist or a Naxalite.While renowned filmmakePrakash Jha, who isdirecting his next movieChakravyuh on Naxalites, hasstated that he has met themover the years, Bidita wentthrough a terrifying experienceof a more dangerous kind onthe sets of a Bengali filmcalled ‘Chokher Pani – Tearsof Nandigram’!
Recalling her horror, theactress says, “I was shootingfor this Bengali film in the sensitiveNandigram village inWest Bengal some time ago,when a group of very unrulypeople thought that the unitcomprised of armedNaxalites.”“The villagers startedshouting – ‘Yeh log filmshooting ke naam par logon kohathiyaar chalane ki training derahein hain’ (‘These people areproviding combat arms trainingin the garb of a filmshoot’).
Before we couldexplain anything, a wildrumour spread and suddenly amob emerged and startedattacking the unit members,”recalls Bidita.The actress remembersseeing agitated people chaseothers with swords and evenburning nearby houses in amindless riot, as she ran andhid inside a rice field to saveher life! Bidita’s publicist DaleBhagwagar adds, the actresstold him, she was too shaken,witnessing such animalisticviolence and that even thelocal police and media termedher a Maoist.
“Bidita felt helplessand traumatized in the village.But luckily for the unitmembers, she did not give upshooting for the film,” heremarks.As the situation calmeddown, the actress is reportedto have completed the shootingschedule under police protectionand safety assurancesby The Rapid Action Force(RAF); the specialized wing ofthe Indian Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF).
