Bidita Bag mistaken for a Naxalite; escapes mob riot

Even as actress Bidita Bag is waiting with a baited breath for the release of her first film From Sydney With Love tomorrow, she is all shaken by memories of a recent village attack in which she was witness to a mob fury where the mob mistook her to be a Maoist or a Naxalite. While renowned filmmaker Prakash Jha, who is directing his next movie Chakravyuh on the Naxalite movement, has stated that he has been meeting them over the years, the actress went through a terrifying experience of a more dangerous kind on the sets of a Bengali film called Chokher Pani – Tears of Nandigram! Recalling her horror, Bidita says, “I was shooting for this Bengali film in the sensitive Nandigram village in West Bengal some time ago, when a group of very unruly people thought that the unit comprised of armed Naxalites.” “The villagers started shouting – ‘Yeh log film shooting ke naam par logon ko hathiyaar chalane ki training de rahein hain’ (‘These people are providing combat arms training in the garb of a film shoot’). Before we could explain anything, a wild rumour spread and suddenly a mob emerged and started attacking the unit members,” recollects Bidita. She also remembers seeing agitated people chase others with swords and even burning nearby houses in a mindless riot as she ran and hid inside a rice field to save her life. Adds the actresses’ publicist, “Bidita felt helpless and traumatized in the village. But luckily for the unit members, she did not give up shooting for the film.” As the situation calmed down, the actress, reportedly completed the shooting schedule under police protection and safety assurances by The Rapid Action Force (RAF).