The gorgeous IIFA ceremony was held in the desert city of Abu Dhabi. The show lasted for three days. The first day celebrated the South Indian cinemas. The Bollywood Award Night was on the second day. The award show celebrated regional films like those of Tamil and Telugu. But there was no place for Bengali films.  

Tota Roy Chowdhury went there as Bengal's representative. He was nominated in the best supporting actor category for his acting in Karan Johar's Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. He looked an absolute dapper in a bandhgala designed by Abhisek Roy.  

He did not win the award. He lost to Anil Kapoor for the latter’s work in Animal.  In the ceremony, Tota faced questions about the lost grace of Bengali films. He shared his experience on social media.  

Tota was questioned on IIFA's green carpet by a journalist. He wrote, “In the press corner at the entry, a Bengali female journalist from Mumbai said that IIFA held an event with the four South Indian states. Once, Bengali films showed the way to Hindi cinema. Now Hindi went far ahead.  She asked me whether I regretted why IIFA did not do any event with Bengali films. I saw that almost 50 reporters stopped working and stared at me. I kept my cool and answered that the progress of other industries would inspire us and we would unitedly try to reclaim our lost glory.”  

However, Tota said that he thought about it later. He wrote, "After the dinner, I thought about it while taking a stroll. Truly, we were the pioneers at one time. Let alone (Satyajit) Ray, (Mrinal) Sen, and (Ritwick) Ghatak, there were directors like Arabinda Mukhopadhyay whose Nishipadma was remade in Hindi as Amar Prem or Agradut whose Chadmabeshi was remade as Chupke Chupke, and these films were blockbusters all over India. A decade back, many non-Bengali people used to watch Rituparno Ghosh's films and discuss them. Self-criticism and analysis of where we erred and how we can reclaim the place is essential. Repeatedly bragging about past glory will only irritate others.”   

He further added, “In the last ten or twelve years, we became petty in thought, mentality, and work. We became busy belittling others and forgot to be bigger ourselves. But to do the latter, we have to first admit that our competitor's work is better than ours. The constant labor and effort for betterment. The preconditions to do that are the courage to face the truth and a wide heart. Our predecessors, unlike some of their successors, perhaps did not have German cars, Swiss watches, French perfumes, Italian suites, Greek vacations, and south-facing apartments, but they had open minds and hence could work with all their hearts. Hence, we kept them in our hearts.”  

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