Srijit Mukherji, Raj Chakraborty faceoff after X=Prem gets no Nandan show unlike Habji Gabji

Mukherji, whose X=Prem releases Friday along with Habji Gabji, Thursday wrote on Facebook, "Two films released on the same day. Both applied for Nandan 1. But only one got through. Whereas ideally and in all fairness either both or neither should have. Why did this happen? Because though all films are equal, some films are more equal than others:)."

Hitting back at Mukherji, Chakraborty Friday tweeted, "I don't want publicity through controversy because the film will speak the final word."

Image Credit: Avishek Mitra/IBNS

Countering Chakraborty, Mukherji, a national award winning filmmaker, said in a Facebook video, "I am not against Raj's film. I am in favour of the screening of both or none. I wanted to know the criteria of the selection.

"If my film has been rejected due to its adult content, I should have been informed. We could have worked on it. All I needed was the criteria based on which the film had been rejected."

The latest controversy centred on Nandan broke out in less-than-a-month's time after TMC government-critique filmmaker Anik Dutta's now massively successful Aparajito, a film based on Satyajit Ray's making of Apur Panchali, was not allowed to be screened at Nandan, which was Ray's favourite spot.

When Aparajito was not allowed to be screened in the month of May, four Bengali films including three with actor-turned TMC leaders, namely Dev, Mimi Chakraborty and Soham Chakraborty in the lead, were being run in different show timings.

While the fourth film Raavan starred superstar Jeet in the main lead, actor-turned TMC youth wing leader Saayoni Ghosh played the second most important role in Dutta's Aparajito.