New York : The ban on the BBC gang rape documentary will not last long as India’s courts are not puppets of the government and civilised values will return, the British filmmaker behind the controversial film has said.
In an interview to PTI, Leslee Udwin, director of ‘Storyville: India’s daughter’, said: “India is a democracy, it is actually a civilised nation even though the current ban would suggest otherwise — that the most important pillar of democracy, which is free speech, has been stamped upon in this ban. It (the ban) is temporary. It’s not going to last. Civilised values will return, the ban will be lifted and then I hope when all of this hysteria dies down, they will focus on saving the women of the world rather than hiding their particular shame.”
“What hypocrisy to scream in hysteria about the platform given to Mukesh who says exactly the same things as Indian politicians say day after day. It’s a reflection of the mindset of the society. And that’s what I learnt doing these interviews,” she alleged. Udwin reiterated that the documentary was “never meant to single India out “for its record of offenses against women.”
“The film was meant to single India out in a particular way and that was in a very positive way as the only country in my lifetime that has stood up for over a month, day after day with unprecedented numbers of ordinary men and women out on the streets fighting for my rights. And that is why I came to India to make this film. If the protests had taken place as a response to any other case in any other part of the world, I would have gone there,” Udwin said.
She said she came to India “out of respect, admiration and gratitude” to those protestors who were “fighting for me on the other side of the globe”.
Udwin said that even though her documentary has been banned in India, she wants to convey to the Indians that “they lead the world by example in these protests (against rape), in terms of standing up and being counted and saying enough is enough”.
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India’s Daughter premiers in US
New York: The controversial BBC documentary, depicting the aftermath of the brutal gangrape and murder of Nirbhaya in 2012, has premiered in the US with Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep, Frieda Pinto and actor Farhan Akhtar in attendance as a show of support for the film banned in India. Streep led a solemn opening of the 2012 gangrape documentary describing the 23-year-old victim as “our daughter” and emphasised that tolerance and acceptance of violence against women is worse than the brutality that dehumanises them. Akhtar said the documentary made him think about the concept of ‘masculinity’.
“Watched #IndiasDaughter last night at the US premiere in NYC.
Raises some serious questions about the concept of masculinity … The film-maker’s intent is clear. It is not to defame India but use an event that reverberated around the globe as the basis for her study…,” he posted on Twitter.
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Yoshita Singh
