Burdwan (WB), Oct 13 (PTI) A government-sponsoredtheatre workshop was called off and its director removed afterwomen participants accused him of sexual harassment.
A senior state official said the accused, filmmakerand theatre director Premangshu Roy, had been removed and aprobe was on.
The matter came to light when some of the participantscomplained on social media sites about the director seekingsexual favours from them in return of lucrative acting offers.
Roy was connected with the state-run MinervaNatyasanskriti Charchakendra, which conducted the workshop.
The five-day workshop was to have continued till todaybut wound up yesterday.
Held at the Rabindra Bhawan here, it was attended by21 people, seven of them women, from East and West Bardhamanand Birbhum districts.
Roy, who could not be contacted, had put up a post onFacebook yesterday, apologising to the theatre fraternity, andclaiming that his jokes had been misread by the participants.
Theatre and film director Suman Mukhopadhyay describedthe incident as a "slide" in Bengali theatre.
"Has the rot started in Bengali theatre? The slidewill continue. Feeling bad for the next generation when onehears such reports," he posted on Facebook.
He called for protests, saying, "Let there beprotests. Should not give up, never should give up". PTI CORRSUS SCH BDSLNS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.