Union Home Minister Amit Shah made a surprise stop-over at Bengali superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee’s Kolkata resident on Monday triggering intense discussions in both political and entertainment circles.
Shah spent around 15 minutes at the actor’s Ballygunge residence accompanied by BJP leader Locket Chatterjee and BJP leader Nisith Pramanik, amid a packed schedule in the city fuelling speculation over the nature of the meeting.
Sources indicated that the interaction had its origins several days ago when Prosenjit travelled to Delhi to receive the Padma Shri award. During this visit, he reportedly met Shah and spoke to him about his film.
The actor is said to have invited the Union Home Minister to watch the film and also requested him to visit his Ballygunge residence during his next trip to Kolkata. According to sources, this invitation may have materialised on Monday.
The Union Home Minister arrived in Kolkata to attend programmes marking the 125th birth anniversary of Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
After landing in Kolkata, Shah first visited Eco Park where he laid the foundation stone for a 125-foot statue of Mookerjee and later spent some time at the educationist-politician’s ancestral residence in Bhawanipore.
Although Shah was scheduled to attend another event at Milan Mela later in the day, he unexpectedly altered his route and headed to Prosenjit’s residence. This visit was not part of his officially announced itinerary.
This is not the first interaction between Prosenjit and leaders from the BJP’s central leadership. Earlier this year, following the announcement of the Padma Shri recipients, Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar visited the actor’s residence along with actor and BJP MLA Rudranil Ghosh to congratulate him.
More recently, Prosenjit had also visited the residence of West Bengal BJP president Shamik Bhattacharya to invite him to watch his new film.