Prabhakar’s KAHAANI GUDIYA KI

Ad man Prabhakar Shukla's KAHAANI GUDIYA KI is about Gudiya who marries Arif, an Army Jawan. They live a happily married life, but within 10 days of their marriage, the Kargil War erupts, and Arif has to leave his newly wed wife behind & move towards the warfront to save the country. His mother is very much proud of him & so is his wife.

But days go by and there is no news of Arif. Everyone awaits his return, and then comes the news that Arif is missing from the battlefront. The Army declares him a deserter. It becomes difficult for Arif's family to take this stigma.

Four years pass by and Gudiya and Arif's mother lose hope of ever seeing Arif again. As Arif and Gudiya have been married for just ten days, Gudiya, comes to terms with the circumstances, and consents to marring her cousin Taufiq. It is bliss for Gudiya at last and Taufiq is a loving husband. Two years pass by and Gudiya is now expecting Taufiq's child – she is eight months pregnant. But fate has other plans in store.

Arif, who was taken POW by Pakistan during the Kargil comes back as a Hero. Now as he has returned as a hero, Arif wants his wife Gudiya back as he hasn't divorced her. Gudiya & Taufiq are in a very difficult situation. Gudiya has moved on with life… As per the Shariat law, Gudiya has to go to Arif, though she is also legally married to Taufiq and expecting his child. Gudiya cannot help herself and goes back to Arif, abiding the law.

The story of Gudiya is no fiction it is true. The story had such a deep impact on Prabhakar Shukla, an ad man for the last one and half decades that he decided to reconstruct Gudiya's life on celluloid. About the incidence he says, " 'Gudiya's life brought to my mind a lot of questions. Why was Gudiya's choice not asked for? Why was the pressure only on her? What about the child she is conceiving? What about her emotions? There are many unanswered whys & whats… and I wanted us Indians to look at the world from Gudiya's point of view. Hence the venture.'

Now that the film is ready except for the climax, Shukla wants the audience to participate in thinking what Gudiya's choice could have been. 'Gudiya never had a choice,' he says. He further adds, 'The real Gudiya's future was decided by the Panchayat. In the film, I want the audience to decide what should be Gudiya's choice. The idea is not to question any decision, but to set forth a thought process that would benefit many other Gudiyas of our country.'

At a time when Gudiya has died of a degenerative disease at 23, director Prabhakar Shukla's thought provoking subject gets more relevance. The film is produced by Lemon N Yellow Productions, starring Divya Dutta (As Gudiya), Rajpal Yadav, Seema Biswas, Arif Zakaria, Hema Singh
& Akhilendra Mishra. Jagjit Singh renders the theme song for KAHAANI GUDIYA KI.