Neetu Chandra, who hails from Bihar, has once again raised her voice against the way people of Bihar are portrayed in films and has written an open letter to all those bringing shame to people belonging to her state through cinema. She is upset about the portrayal of Biharis in Udta Punjab, in which Alia Bhatt is playing a Bihari migrant, who aspires to be a hockey player.
In the recent past, Neetu Chandra also took on author Chetan Bhagat since the protagonist in his novel ‘Half Girlfriend’ had his lead male protagonist hailing from Bihar who lacks English conversational skills.
Not many know, Neetu Chandra has made her state as well as her country proud by being the first female actor and sports girl to represent India in Taekwondo championships abroad and the first female producer to win a National Award for her Maithili language film, Mithila Makhaan.
In the open letter, Neetu Chandra wrote, “It’s disturbing to see the way Biharis have been portrayed in Hindi cinema over the last few years, the recent example being Alia Bhatt’s character from Udta Punjab and from whatever one understands from the promo of the film, director Abhishek Chaubey is guilty of strengthening the stereotype of Biharis by creating Bhatt’s character the way it is, in Udta Punjab”
In the same breath, Neetu Chandra added, “Unfortunately, almost all the films made by Prakash Jha, who also hails from Bihar, have always stereotyped Biharis by showing them as corrupt politicians, cops and gangsters and in his movie. Bihar was always exaggerated to be the most dangerous place to visit as his films showed only either kidnapping and robbery and murders, not realizing that he himself along with leading Bollywood actors (who are a part of his films) are maligning the name of Bihar whose history has been the richest in the world.”
“The first educational university was set up in Rajgir, near Nalanda (Bihar) and several respected religions including Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism roots have developed in Bihar. Visionaries and scholars like Rajendra Prasad (first President of Republic of India), Ustad Bismillah Khan (Shehnai maestro), Bhikhari Thakur, Vatsyayana, Gonu Jha, Kunwar Singh, Maulana Mazhrul Haq, Seewosagar Ramgoolam and Aryabhatt who invented zero are among several hundreds of stalwarts of the world belong to Bihar. So why have none of the makers from Bihar or outside Bihar ever made films on these stories? Because they think that they will keep making fun of Bihars in their films and TV programs, and no one will say anything against them”
“Stop stereotyping Bihar because you have seen Bihar through your ears, not through your eyes,” Neetu Chandra concluded.
