From sets to booths: Bengali actors cast votes across Kolkata

Actors from the Bengali film industry took time off from their hectic shooting schedules to cast their votes during the second phase of West Bengal Assembly elections on Wednesday. Actor Prosenjit Chatterjee cast his vote in Ballygunge area along with his son Trishanjit and expressed happiness that his son exercised his franchise for the first time. ''I am very happy that my son is exercising his democratic right for the first time. Today is an important day for him,'' he said. Legendary actor and BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty cast his votes at a booth in Belgachia, which is his ancestral locality. Actor Debdut Ghosh, who had previously and unsuccessfully contested in the 2021 assembly polls on a CPI(M) ticket, said he voted early in Dum Dum. Actor Manali Dey travelled to her parental home in Kasba in south Kolkata to vote. ''I came early in the morning and voted with my father, bringing back memories of the days when I voted for the first time,'' she said. Bengali superstar and TMC MP Dev cast his vote at the booth in his gated high-rise complex in south Kolkata and waited patiently in the queue along with other voters. Requested by central force jawans to skip the queue and go inside to cast votes, Dev politely turned down the request and said, ''I am in no hurry.'' Actor Gargi Roy Choudhury cast her vote at her polling booth in Sector V in Salt Lake area during the day. The second phase of polling saw several parts of Kolkata and adjoining areas observe what industry insiders described as an ''unofficial holiday'' in Tollygunge, the hub of the Bengali television industry. With shoots paused for the day, actors used the opportunity to exercise their democratic rights away from the hurly burly of shootings.

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