Assamese cinema at Cannes; State Govt's step to send bureaucrats instead questioned

Guwahati, May 16: As the world gears up to witness the most prestigious Cannes film festival to be held between May 17-18 in France, the Assamese film industry will be making its presence felt at the global festival too with the screening of the movie- "Boomba Ride"

Although it's a matter of great pride for the Assamese film industry, the spirit was dampened after several reports surfaced stating that the State government will be sending singer-composer Angaraag Mahanta; singer-composer, and music producer Simanta Shekhar, along with two bureaucrats from the state cultural affairs department.

As per reports, the government will incur the expenses of the delegation which has rather raised a question on the inadvertent step taken by the government.

Makers of Boomba Ride have lamented over the government's apathy towards the film which has been selected for the screening at the prestigious event.

While reacting to a tweet about the government's initiative, producer Luit Kumar Barman on Sunday questioned Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who did not even congratulate the team, let alone sponsoring the team to the festival.

"@himantabiswa sir, what is this? We made the movie #boombaride, we are invited by Cannes and GoI, we are going on our expense and what is this news sir? You didn't congratulate us forgot about sponsorship and u r sending those! It hurts", Barman tweeted.

While netizens came out in support of the filmmakers, they also said that if such a state persists then Jollywood will be struggling in the future to survive.