With the drastic steps taken by the Centre against the Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed, uncertainty looms over the fate of a Bengali movie Datta based on the novel written by the legendary Bengali author Saratchandra Chattopadhyay where Ahmed is playing the role of ‘Bilash’ under the production house Bhabna Aaj o Kaal.

The ministry of Home affairs on 16th April  issued a “Leave India”notice to the Bangladeshi actor who had come to India for the shooting of the film and cancelled his business visa for allegedly campaigning for a Trinamul Congress candidate for the Raigunj Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal. Polling for the constituency will be held today.

Ahmed has also been blacklisted by the home ministry putting his future travel to India under a question mark.

“We do not know for how many days the actor has been black listed for our film Datta. We will have to opt for a second actor if he is blacklisted permanently,” said the director of the film, Nirmal Chakraborty.

“Rituparna Sengupta is playing the role of the heroine with Ferdous in the role of Bijaya. This is a period drama so the costume and the set need to be designed in a unique manner which needs time. We will be in trouble if he doesn’t come for our next indoor shooting scheduled in June. He was here for three days from 9 to 11 April for the outdoor shooting of the film in Bolpur,” he continued.

Ahmed, along with a few other Tollywood actors allegedly took part in the road show campaigning for TMC candidate Kanhaiayalal Agarwal on 14 April in Raiganj, North Dinajpur.

Tollywood sources said, Rituparna Sengupta who has a good bonding with the Bangladeshi actor and has worked in 15 films with him is upset as the film is being produced by her production house. She is said to have told her close circles that Ferdous without knowing the consequences must have taken part in the election campaign.

Whereas Ferdous in a written statement has confessed that, “Acting is my passion and occupation and I love coming to India anytime. Being the largest democratic country, like every other person I also have a personal interest towards the election of this country. So I had emotionally taken part in the election campaign with my friends. I had no prior plan regarding this. I do not preserve any special preference for any particular political party.”

Apologising for his action, he said, “ I respect all the political leaders belonging to India and have respect for the Indian law. I made a mistake and regretting for my action. I seek forgiveness for the however unintentional act.”

The actor had recently made a special appearance in the 2018 Tollywood film Kabir.