Two Arrested After Assaulting Filmmaker Dominic Sangma in Arunachal

Itanagar: Police arrested two men on September 18 for allegedly beating filmmaker Dominic Sangma with bamboo sticks on the outskirts of Arunachal Pradesh. The attack occurred Wednesday evening along the Jollang-Rakap road near the Film and Television Institute of India campus in Jote. Sangma, who heads the screenwriting department, stepped in when he saw two drunk men wielding sticks to threaten students. The situation turned violent fast.

Sangma's wife explained the sequence of events. "When he intervened, the two men attacked him with bamboo sticks," she said. Along with the filmmaker, an FTII security guard and four students suffered injuries during the confrontation. Police from the Balijan station filed an FIR and tracked down both suspects, who reside in nearby Rakap village.

Sangma is a major name in Northeast cinema, famous for his Garo-language projects titled Rapture and Ma.Ama. The Arunachal Film Collective condemned the violence immediately. Chairperson Bindiya Ete Nalo labeled the assault a direct strike against artistic freedom and local cultural identity. She demanded an impartial investigation and pushed for better protection for artists working across the region.