Staff Reporter
Thrissur: The Government should set up Special Economic Zones in the country only after ascertaining whether they will improve the lot of the common man, Goutam Ghosh, film director, has said.
He was addressing a meet-the-press programme at the Thrissur Press Club on Saturday. Ghosh was here to attend the Thrissur International Film Festival 2007 (TIFF). His film, ‘Calcutta My Love’, opened the week-long festival on Friday.
“I am not against industrialisation. But development should not affect the common man,” he said, protesting against the police action at Nandigram in West Bengal.
“Retrieving agricultural fields given to villagers created problems in Nandigram. Lack of understanding and lapses in communication between rulers and bureaucrats added to the woes,” he said.
Ms. Ghosh said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was creating ‘Frankensteins’ by some of its practices while staying in power. “Staying in power has its advantages and disadvantages,” he said. He hoped that digital technology would give a fillip to alternative cinema.
“Changes in films, triggered by a frenetic pace of life and a visual culture developed by TV, are a reality. Every lover of cinema hopes that these changes will not kill experiments in the medium," he said.
Thrissur Press Club president Sethu Madhavan, secretary M. J. Babu and journalist E. Salahuddin also spoke.