Curtains down on Swarup Biswas era? West Bengal film industry hopes so

A struggling Tollywood needs a good hit. Now, it doesn’t have to look far for a script.

In the series of twists that have followed the West Bengal Assembly election results, police Thursday night swooped down on Trinamool Congress leader Swarup Biswas, the man who for the past decade has called the shots in the state’s film industry, deciding who gets work and who can’t, wielding “bans” as his weapon.

Biswas’s Facebook bio simply says “politician”, the one-word descriptor telling as much as it conceals about the clout enjoyed by the 51-year-old who never held any official position in the TMC but, for years, sat at the top of Tollywood’s administrative power structure as the President of the Federation of Cine Technicians & Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI). After the results, as the chorus of allegations against him grew, Swarup claimed his tenure as its chief ended in December 2025 itself.

Swarup’s arrest, over allegations of sexual harassment, extortion and attempt to murder, comes in the wake of growing trouble for his elder brother Aroop Biswas, a former TMC sports minister who dictated terms with allegedly equal impunity in the state’s sports field. Aroop is facing investigation over the administrative chaos surrounding Argentine football legend Lionel Messi’s visit to Kolkata in December last year. On Friday, Mamata Banerjee named Aroop as TMC state general secretary.

Following Swarup’s arrest, several artistes associated with Tollywood spoke up about how he dictated terms in the film industry through a “syndicate” that blacklisted those “non-compliant” or not aligned to TMC interests.

Acclaimed actress Sreelekha Mitra posted on Facebook: “I was effectively banned for the last 10 years by the TMC and the so-called artistes who ruled the industry.”

BJP MLA from Tollygunge Papia Adhikary announced that there would be a major overhaul with the launch of the Eastern India Motion Picture Cultural Confederation, that will streamline industry operations into four broad categories – replacing the previous system of the FCTWEI.

Veteran actor Aparajita Adya said Swarup’s “arrest was required”. “People knew that anyone who did not listen to him would get banned, that he would end their career. Many producers left the industry because of him. There are so many movies which remain incomplete… To ‘allow’ a film’s release, extraordinary amounts of money was demanded.”

Actor-turned-activist Rupa Bhattacharya, who was with the BJP briefly, said she had not got work for almost 10 years due to Swarup, giving the example of a big-budget film from which she was allegedly dropped as producers were told not to take her and that there would be problem getting the film a release.

A small-time actor told The Indian Express: “If an actor, director or even a technician publicly criticised the FCTWEI’s leadership, they wouldn’t just be hauled before the union, but face a quiet, devastating boycott.”

In November 2025, a movie made by film students struggled to get a release as the FCTWEI reportedly objected to federation-approved technicians not being hired for it. Among the several rules the FCTWEI was said to impose is that a filmmaker hire a given number of federation-approved technicians for their project, allegedly regardless of the film’s requirements.

In July 2024, director Rahool Mukherjee was subjected to three-month suspension by the FCTWEI for working on a Bangladeshi OTT series which, it said, failed the technician requirement, as well as a condition by the FCTWEI that “foreign productions” pay higher amounts. The latter rule had incidentally been brought in with Hollywood productions in mind. After the series got shelved, many filmmakers called for a strike. They returned to work only after assurance by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to set up a committee to streamline regulations.

When the promised panel did not materialise, more than a dozen filmmakers, including leading names like Indranil Roychowdhury, Parambrata Chatterjee and Anirban Bhattacharya, filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court accusing the FCTWEI actions of impacting their right to work. However, the court dismissed the petition, and the actors withdrew their petitions, apparently after “private negotiations”. Anirban Bhattacharya only recently returned to the shooting floor after a long gap.

Swarup, in turn, always claimed that the FCTWEI exists to fight for the interests of technicians and that his primary goal was their welfare.

Actor Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee said the “clean-up” needs to go deeper. “Swarup Biswas is just the tip of the iceberg. There are people who worked with him to pollute the industry and those who sucked up to him.”

Accusing Swarup of causing “massive damage to the Bengali film industry”, actor Aritra Dutta Banik said that, to be fair, the TMC leader was a huge help to daily wage technicians employed in the film industry during Covid, when work came to a standstill. “But the volume of his crimes and wrongdoings is so high that bad far outweighs the good,” Banik said.

In a Facebook post, Banik also warned against the “Leftists in words, TMC at heart” actors “who are now testing the waters” with the BJP.

Prominent BJP leader and minister Dilip Ghosh has asked others to come forward. “Those who haven’t yet gathered the courage to complain should also do so now. Let people know how tyrannical they were and how much they misused and abused power.”

Actor-turned-politician and BJP leader Locket Chatterjee assured that change would come now with the TMC out of power. Talking about her decision to sever ties with the TMC 12 years ago, Chatterjee said she paid a price for doing a press conference “on how the brothers Aroop and Swarup Biswas had finished the entertainment industry of Bengal”.

Swarup, remanded in police custody till June 18, has been booked for alleged sexual harassment, extortion, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and under provisions of the Arms Act. A make-up artist has accused him of seeking sexual favours in return for being allowed to work in the industry, of using threats to extort around Rs 22 lakh from different people, and of an attempt to murder using firearms. The FCTWEI has been silent on the development.

There is a plot twist in this too. Back in September 2024, Swarup had announced a cell to fight sexual harassment in the film industry, while claiming that 60% of complaints received by them were against directors and producer-directors, and 40% against producers. Following this, a directors’ association filed a defamation suit against the TMC leader.