Generation lost in space? Young thespian accused of abuse in Kolkata

Kolkata: Late on Thursday evening, a blog article started doing rounds on social media. It spread from profile to profile, burning softly in the beginning and then exploded altogether, confounding some of the readers.

Others were less surprised, happy at the revelation and murmured that they have, in fact, known for years.

The article accused a certain Aritra Sengupta, former student of Jadavpur University and a "young thespian" of molesting, sexually abusing, bullying and forcing interns and juniors with aspirations regularly, continuously, over the years.

Aritra Sengupta was the creative director of a prominent Kolkata-based theatre group called 'Mad About Drama' (MAD).

"Sleazy texts, molestation, gaslighting, emotional abuse and most of all, using his position in the creative circuit, has been his norm since the inception of the theater group he co-founded," goes the article.

The writer also claims that MAD was in the know of Sengupta's antiques and as a result, suspended him from all positions and projects of the group earlier but continued to work with him without mentioning his name anywhere.

MAD, however, refuted all such claims and posted a copy of the letter suspending Sengupta on their Facebook page.

Incidentally, immediately after this article went viral, other young women who associated themselves with said theatre-group at different points in time, came up with similar allegations, not just against Sengupta, but against other members also, most notably Soham Majumdar, who has recently debuted in eminent director Kaushik Ganguly's feature, Drishtikone.

Needless to say, social media erupted after this.

For some, this was just a way for these young women to gain publicity. 

However, the real question lies elsewhere. 

Sengupta, like his predecessor Ekalavya Chaudhuri, did not deny the fact that he has physically and mentally abused women, on confrontation.

On contrary, he accepted all of these allegations and blamed it on either a "mental health condition" or "method acting," as per the article.

No form of mental health condition is so far known to blur the lines between consent and a clear refusal to sexually indulge. 

As for method acting, if it involves physical and mental abuse of another person against their consent, it still remains punishable by law.