Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta was detained at the Toronto airport due to her visa validity. Despite possessing a B1 visa granted to her in 2010 and valid till 2015, the National award winning actress had to face harassment at he airport. She was questioned for five long hours.
She was flying to Toronto to attend the premiere of her Bengali film, ‘Mukti’. Rituparna said today that despite carrying a valid visa, she was detained at the airport. "I went through a big trauma as the Toronto airport authorities were denying me entry yesterday. I had come here for the premiere of 'Mukti'," Sengupta told PTI from Toronto.
Sengupta had mistakenly applied for a fresh visa despite having one already and this very fact landed the actress in trouble.
"They kept grilling me on why I had applied again despite already having a valid visa. They refused to listen to my explanation and kept asking whether I would work in Canada on this trip. It was one of the most traumatic episodes in my life," said the actor.
"The Indian embassy intervened later. I am here for North Atlantic Bengali Conference in Toronto as an esteemed guest. They realised their fault later," Sengupta added.
The 41-year-old actress claimed that her 80-year-old aunt, who is bound to wheelchair and a Canadian citizen who came to meet her at the airport, fell sick after the incident.
Sengupta said her phone was snatched immediately after she was not allowed to make any call.
"I couldn't contact the organisers, neither could I get back to my family as my phone was snatched just when I called up my husband. All they wanted was to make me head back to India by the same evening.
"But now I am looking forward to attend the screening and get the feedback," said the actress.
Film's director Reshmi Mitra, said the actress is still in shock. "Ritu is still trauma-struck... I have talked to her today. The organisers are taking every care of her," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment