‘Boomba Ride’ in Cannes, but Assam sending bureaucrats to festival. Why?

Guwahati: The news of the official selection of the Biswajeet Bora-directed Assamese movie, Boomba Ride, for screening at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on May 22 had brought great cheer to Assam earlier this month. But the joy did not last long.

A tweet from the producer Luit Kumar Barman on Sunday morning, while reacting to another tweet on the apparent lack of government support to sponsor the to-and-fro journey of the four-member leading crew members to France, not to mention any congratulatory message so far, has dampened the cheer somewhat.

The Assam government has reportedly selected a list of four (trimmed from eight selected earlier, according to sources) for the prestigious film festival to “promote the Assamese film industry”. The revised list now comprises singer-composer Papon (Angaraag Mahanta); singer-composer, and music producer Simanta Shekhar, who was recently appointed as chairman of Assam State Finance and Development Corporation, along with two bureaucrats from the state cultural affairs department.