GJM arm to 'guard' Ranbir shoot in Hills

DARJEELING: The Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP), the 'police wing' of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), will provide security to the crew of the film, Barfee. Shooting of the film got disrupted on Thursday following an altercation with the locals and the film's production members.

The film unit of Barfee, a Anurag Basu directed flick were forced to stop shooting for the day without a single shot being canned. Police was deployed and GJM leaders had to come to the film set to sort out the matter.

"Shooting had to be stopped because of over-crowding. There is crowd-control problem with a film everywhere.

I tendered my apology but this has left a bad taste," said Anurag Basu, the director of the film. Shoot had started at around 6 in the morning but had to be stopped for the day from 9 am.

"Actually, I had shouted at one of the crew to clear the frame. However, somebody thought I had shouted at that person," explained Basu.

According to some witnesses at Chowrastha, where the shooting was supposed to take place, one of the crew members used the 'idiot' word to the crowd that had gathered near the set. A lady took objection to it and soon it turned into a big ruckus. In fact, according to sources this forced Basu to call on GJM president, who asked one of the party leaders to sort out the matter.

"It was very kind of Benoy Tamang, the GJM leader, to come to the set and sort out the issue. The GJM leadership has assured to provide their volunteers to man the crowd," said Basu. When asked if police would be deployed, the director replied, "At times, local people are better adept at controlling the crowd." The GLP, according to sources, does not have a healthy equation with the administration as well as the public because of their allegedly intrusive attitude. They had been deployed to do moral policing in Chowrastha and other places which did not go down well with the Hills citizens and were later taken off.

The director of the film, however, ruled out any possibility of leaving the Hills. "I could have shot in Shimla and Ooty but I chose Darjeeling because of my affinity to this place," he said, adding, "I will take a decision in a couple of days".

GJM leaders, after meeting the film unit, tendered their apology and assured to identify and locate the miscreants. "Some disruptive elements tried to create trouble. We will try to identify them and will also speak to the police authority," said Tamang, the party's assistant secretary.

The GJM leader confirmed that the party would provide GLP security to the unit for the duration of the shooting in the Hills. "I have asked Basu to give the itinerary for various location of the shooting and we will provide security accordingly," said Tamang.

The GJM leader also said that like the tourists, the film unit was also the Hill's guest and appealed to people to cooperate. "Not only the film unit but tourist will also be given security and assistant as it is our duty to treat our guest well," said Tamang.

DP Singh, the Darjeeling SP, said he would take back the security if the GLPs were deployed in fatigues. "We have no problem if the GLPs are in casual clothes but if they are found in fatigues then we will withdraw police security," he said. However on today's incident, the SP said that the film unit had failed to give the shooting itinerary even though they it was asked. 

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