Coronavirus update: Anirban Bhattacharya proposes monetary fund for Bengali theatre's daily wagers

Film and theatre actor Anirban Bhattacharya, along with his fellow theatre activists, has taken up the cause of providing financial aid to daily wage earning theatre artistes, following the lockdown in the state till 31 March due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Along with urging people to maintain personal hygiene and social distancing in a video, the actor also said in an official statement, “The entire world is now ravaged with an epidemic. This is a new world and so is the battle. Lockdowns have been imposed for necessary reasons. We have a lot to isssues to worry about but at the same time not all of them are in our hands.” [Translation of original statement in Bengali]

The actor, who has been vocal about various other issues, including the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the proposed National Registration of Citizenship (NRC) and the proposed National Population Registration (NPR), added, “However, we can do something despite the limitations. We are theatre activists. For now, we might consider narrowing the map to our theatre circle. There are people associated with theatre, who earn their living daily and can barely save. I want to urge all my fellow artistes to create a fund for these theatre activists of West Bengal.”

Applauding the preventive measures taken by both the central and the state government, the actor requested people to step forward and help, going beyond their political differences, as he feels the “humanity is in grave danger".

Laying out the plan for creating and contributing to the fund, the actor proposed to create district specific Whatsapp groups that would collect the data of the number of theatre activists and artistes in each district. Monetary contributions would be made to the account of one of the activists in each district through digital payment, as it is difficult to contribute manually during this time.

However, he assured that, in exceptional cases, efforts for manual contribution would also be made.