Mithun Chakraborty is named a cabinet-rank culture advisor in Bengal

The West Bengal government has appointed Mithun Chakraborty advisor to the Information and Culture department, with the rank of a cabinet minister. The Personnel and Administrative Reforms department put the appointment in a notification. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari announced it at an event linked to the centenary of the actor Uttam Kumar. The culture department is under Adhikari himself, so the advisor reports into a portfolio the chief minister holds.

Chakraborty is a veteran film actor and a Bharatiya Janata Party leader. He campaigned for the party in the 2026 assembly election, which ended the Trinamool Congress government and made Adhikari the state's first BJP chief minister. The new post is administrative, not a return to a film set. India Today described it as part of an effort to put more weight on Bengal's film and culture machinery. The Indian Express confirmed the cabinet-rank status and the department.

Cabinet rank is a specific thing. It is not a ceremonial title at a festival. It places the holder in the protocol of a minister, with the access that rank implies, without making him an elected member of the cabinet. The notification is what turns an announcement at an Uttam Kumar event into an appointment. Until that paper exists, a stage line is a stage line. The Express account says the notification has been issued.

Uttam Kumar's centenary is the occasion, not the job. The actor died in 1980. A centenary programme is a cultural calendar item. Using it to name a living star as advisor ties a BJP government's first culture appointment to a figure who sits outside party memory of Bengal cinema. That is a political choice about symbols. It does not, by itself, fund a studio or a archive.

What the appointment does not yet say is the work. No public list of film-city projects, subsidies, or festival dates was attached to Wednesday's notice in the reports that carried the rank. The measurable next step is whether the culture department files a scheme with his name on the consultative line, and whether cabinet rank produces a secretariat allocation or only a protocol seat.

Kolkata has seen film stars in public office before. The difference this week is the party in power and the rank. A campaigner from the 2026 election now sits as advisor to the department his chief minister runs, announced in the same breath as Uttam Kumar. The file to read is the personnel notification, not the centenary speech.