Have either Anubhav Sinha or any of the cast gotten in touch with you to compare notes or share experiences?
No why should they? Bollywood is far too conceited for such gestures. When they didn't bother to even go and speak to Sampath Pal (Gulaabi Gang Leader) or her group do you think they would really be interested in talking to me?
But the Gulaab Gang publicity machine is in overdrive claiming painstaking research for the film...
Really? That will come out when the film releases finally. Already there's a huge problem with the promos on air already. It gives the women, working so hard, the image of goondas. It'll be truly tragic if the world forms its ideas about Gulabi Gang based on the film. I can see why Sampath and the other women are peeved about the film and its portrayal of them. Already, the men in the area need no excuse to lampoon and caricature them. The film shouldn't further that.
Were you under any pressure not to show the negative aspects about the gang?
See I was making a documentary according to my own sensibilities. This is my take on the gang and what is going on in the region. It'd be too easy to go and make a propagandist goody-goody simplistic film calling it a revolution. That would perhaps bring me awards and money in droves. But it wouldn't be real. There is this cyclical process of powerlessness, empowerment and abuse of power which keeps going on in that space. And the movement Gulabi gang is also sees this dynamic manifest. Even when people break away from the gang and criticise it we have included that in the film. After all telling every side of the story was important.
OUCH! 😳
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