`Chittagong` screening cancelled in Bangladesh

Kolkata: The first public screening of Hindi film `Chittagong` in Bangladesh has been cancelled by the organisers of the Hay Festival, film`s director Bedabrata Pain said today.

After opening to positive reviews in theatres across India, the screening of the Manoj Bajpai and Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer was scheduled to be held tomorrow in Dhaka during the ongoing Hay Festival which ends Saturday. "They gave me no reason for the sudden cancellation. It was to be the closing night film. Then at the 11th hour they shifted it to the 16th and cancelled it finally," Pain said. "I didn`t want to go to this festival - they practically begged me to come and I had to change a lot of my plans to go to Dhaka only to be unceremoniously dismissed. I consider this extremely unprofessional," the NASA scientist-turned-film director said. Pain said since the film is based on a story from the city of Chittagong, now in Bangladesh, he wants the film to be released in the neighbouring country. `Chittagong` deals with a group of schoolboys and young women, led by freedom fighter Surya Sen, a teacher, who raided two British armouries to loot it during India`s freedom struggle. PTI