KOLKATA: Future Institute of Engineering and Management (FIEM) that had taken over Saradha owned defunct Bengali magazine ‘Paroma’ last year and started afresh as ‘Prothoma Ekhon’ has decided to shut shop, citing huge losses as the reason. The move has left around 35 employees including journalists and technical staff jobless.

“We have closed down the fortnight magazine as we could not sell it,” informs a FIEM official on condition of anonymity to indiantelevisioin.com.

‘Paroma’ was launched by Kolkata-headquartered Saradha Group of companies with critically acclaimed filmmaker, screenwriter and actress Aparna Sen running the show.

But many media ventures of the Kolkata headquartered company like Sakalbela, The Bengal Post, Azad Hind, Prabhat Varta and the Seven Sisters Post, including ‘Paroma’ closed down after the company’s chit fund went bust last year in April.

It was then that FIEM took charge and re-launched the magazine in July 2013. The fortnightly was a mix of other best-selling Bengali magazines like ‘Desh’ and ‘Sananda’ that catered to women and the intellectuals.

“The first issue was a total sold out,” recalls an employee. “The response from the market was so good, that the management at one point was considering increasing the number of pages,” the source adds. 

“The RNI was in the name of Saradha only, as we did not get it transferred on our name. We tried to revive it but it was not selling instead of our repeated attempts,” the FIEM official informs.