`Teen Kanya` director claims screening at Star, theater deniesr

Director Agnideb Chattopadhyay`s‘Teen Kanya’ was banned in state-run Star theater for being "anti-government", Sunday said the theater has withdrawn its decision. But the theater authorities rejected Chattopadhyay`s claim.

Kolkata: Director Agnideb Chattopadhyay, whose Bengali movie ‘Teen Kanya’ was banned in state-run Star theater for being "anti-government", Sunday said the theater has withdrawn its decision. But the theater authorities rejected Chattopadhyay`s claim.

"The distributors of my movie said that they have been informed by the Star authorities that the film `Teen Kanya` will be screened from Sunday evening onwards. I am very happy at the turn of events," Chattopadhyay said. The director claimed that he was informed about the decision by Hemendra Dave, a film distributor who supervises screening of movies at the Star theater. Dave, however, rubbished the director`s claim by saying the movie would not be screened as the Star auditorium was booked for other programmes. "No, the film will not be screened here. I don`t know why he made such a claim. There has been no talk on screening of `Teen Kanya` at the Star (theater)," Dave said. "The movie is not being screened because of other bookings and not because it is anti-government. The theater is booked for the eight-day Kolkata International Film Festival starting Nov 10 and some stage plays. So there is no chance of screening the movie," Dave added. The film, a suspense thriller, was released Friday. But it was pulled out of the Star theater Saturday after being branded anti-government. The film is said to bear a resemblance to the real-life Park Street rape case, in which an Anglo-Indian woman was raped in a moving car in February. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee received severe criticism from all quarters after she initially dubbed the crime as "fabricated". IANS