Kolkata: The most stinging comment on the changing face of the Bengali after BJP’s big win in West Bengal came at a live show where stand-up comic Nasif Akhtar chided his audience who enthusiastically repeated his ‘Jai Shi Ram’ chant by reminding them they were all supporters of the TMC just before the 2026 Assembly poll results. His viral clip captures the mood of people trying to change their political stripes, especially in Tollywood—the Bengali film industry.
Most of the Bengali film actors, who aligned with the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC till 4 May, are publicly distancing themselves from the party, adjusting to a mammoth and somewhat unexpected political verdict in the state.
As the industry grips with the BJP wave, new scripts with prominent ‘Hindu themes’ are being feverishly discussed, and Tollywood unions, so far, under the vice-like grip of the TMC, are fast breaking up, leading to new dynamics in scripting and production.
When they said no to BJP
In the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections, a platform “No Vote to BJP” was set up by a group of political and civil rights activists that exhorted Bengal’s voters to stay away from the Modi-led party.
“The alarm bells rang when the BJP won 18 of the 42 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. We knew we had to do something. BJP’s ideology or culture is in basic conflict with the ethos of people here,” Kushal Debnath, a senior leader of the platform, had said in an interview in 2021.
As part of the campaign, a group of artistes released a music video titled “Ami onyo kothao jabona, ami ei deshetei thakbo” (I won’t go anywhere, I shall live right here, in this country) as a retort to one of the most commonly used pieces of advice to anyone who protested against the BJP’s politics: “Go to Pakistan”. Prominent Tollywood personalities like Riddhi Sen, Anirban Bhattacharya, Anupam Roy and Parambrata Chattopadhay were part of the campaign.
The BJP lost the 2021 Assembly polls.
This year too, in the run-up to the Assembly polls, a section of Tollywood became vocal in its dislike for the BJP. Like in 2021, Chattopadhay spoke out against the BJP, but this time, he went a step further to campaign for the TMC. Officially making his political campaign debut for Krishnanagar South TMC candidate Ujjal Biswas, Chattopadhay said, “The 2026 election is no ordinary election. This is a fight for Bengali self-respect. Every Bengali should be part of this fight.”
Post the BJP’s big win on 4 May, Chattopadhay seemed to be singing a different tune. He said if the new government can work toward the development of business and industries in the state, especially work towards the betterment of Tollywood, he would be happiest. Chattopadhay had a rider. He hoped the government could do all these while accommodating differences in political ideology.
For author and senior advocate, Calcutta High Court, Joydeep Sen Chattopadhay was behaving as a hypocrite at best and a “bare-faced liar” at worst.
“This actor has been one of the shrillest voices against the BJP. So much so that he didn’t open his mouth during the post-poll violence of 2021 when BJP workers were being raped and killed. He is now simply trying to curry favour with the new government,” Sen told ThePrint.
Chattopadhay is not the only actor distancing from the TMC. Former party MLA and one of Tollywood’s biggest directors, Raj Chakraborty, announced on X that he is quitting politics. Chakraborty had contested this election from the Barrackpore Assembly constituency on a TMC ticket and lost by a margin of 15,822 votes.
Congratulating the BJP for its sweeping victory in West Bengal, Bengali superstar and sitting TMC MP from Ghatal constituency Dev Adhikary urged the new government to uphold the spirit of unity and artistic freedom in the Bengali film industry and put an end to the ‘cultural ban’.
“I would earnestly request the new government to uphold the spirit of unity and artistic freedom by ensuring that the culture of bans and divisions within the Bengali film industry becomes a thing of the past,” Adhikary said.
Interestingly, it is the Adhikary’s party whose leaders have been blamed for these bans and divisions.
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Breaking unions, scripting new stories
Perhaps the most dramatic change in the coming days after the BJP’s win would be witnessed in the workings of the Federation of Cine Technicians & Workers of Eastern India, which has many affiliated unions and guilds operating under its umbrella and is currently run by TMC leader Swarup Biswas.
According to Tollywood insiders, Biswas draws his power from his brother, TMC leader and former West Bengal minister Aroop Biswas. And now Aroop has lost the Tollyganj seat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections to BJP candidate Papia Adhikary.
A National Award-winning Bengali filmmaker who works both in Tollywood and Bollywood told ThePrint on condition of anonymity that Biswas has been running a “syndicate” in the Bengali film industry and that he and his coterie control technicians, timing of shoots, the functioning of shooting units, and even “bans” actors and directors if they do not fall in line.
“Now that the BJP is here, there might be big changes in the federation, including calls for a new president. Already, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari has called actor-cum-BJP leaders Rudranil Ghosh, Papiya Adhikary, Rupa Ganguly and Hiran Chatterjee to discuss ways to change Tollywood’s working culture,” senior entertainment journalist Bhaswati Ghosh told ThePrint.
And it is not just working style and ban culture in Tollywood that is set for a massive change, but also the kind of cinema that the industry is known for. It has not even been two weeks since the BJP won West Bengal, and filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Bengal Files’ received the green signal for release in the state. The film was released in Indian theatres in September last year, except in West Bengal. Agnihotri had blamed TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee for the film not releasing in West Bengal before.
“Our trailer launch was blocked. We were attacked and assaulted. Dozens of FIRs were filed against me. I was cancelled in Bengal. I couldn’t even go to receive my award from the governor. But we never gave up. During these elections, we ensured the film was somehow shown to as many people as possible across Bengal,” Agnihotri said.
With the BJP’s win, many Tollywood filmmakers are also desperately searching for scripts that cater to the “Hindu cause”. Industry insiders told ThePrint there is a rush to locate books and scripts that cater to the Hindu Right, especially ones that have roots in Bengal’s history.
For Subhrajit Mitra, director of the epic period action-adventure Bengali film ‘Devi Chowdhurani’ based on Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel of the same name and released in 2025, what is happening currently in Tollywood is “shameless intellectual servitude”. Mitra told ThePrint that Tollywood traditionally had scoffed at projects like the one he undertook last year.
“When I chose to make a film on the historical resistance of ascetic monks against oppression, it wasn’t because political winds were favourable. Instead, it was quite the opposite. And the same filmmakers who are today trying to make films that suit the Hindutva narrative had dismissed subjects like Devi Chowdhurani as unfashionable, commercially risky and politically inconvenient. The audience will see through their lies on screen,” Mitra said.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)