Disha, Pranay: Can RGV’s films make a difference?

Known to court controversy when presenting his critique of society through the medium of cinema, director Ram Gopal Varma’s two upcoming film projects are based on sensational subjects. One of the films is based on a 23-year-old dalit man, Mirayalaguda Pranay, who was murdered in broad daylight on September 14, 2018, by career criminals engaged by his caste Hindu wife’s father, Maruthi Rao. The other film is about the young veterinarian, Disha, who was raped and murdered on November 27, 2019, in Hyderabad. It led to the police killings of four young men.

Let us discuss a few ethical concerns related to the subjects of these two films. The discussion is not aimed at curtailing the director’s freedom of speech and expression. It must be remembered, however, that it is equally important to protect the survivors of crime from further violence.

The concerns are as follows. First, the legal procedure in both cases has not come to a conclusion yet. Second, these cases involve sensitive matters — caste killings and rape. It is unethical to make a biographical film on a living person without their consent. Amrutha is a young woman, who witnessed the murder of her beloved husband. It is difficult for people to measure her unfathomable pain while surviving parental abuse, experiencing misrepresentation of her life and views in the media and suffering online trolling. Making a film on the caste killing of Pranay that includes her life story may put her through the trauma again. Amrutha condemned making a movie on her life. The portrayal of the life of an ordinary middle class family may also affect the privacy of Amrutha’s child who must grow up in the same casteist and sexist society. Third, there are cases of consolidated caste Hindu middle classes stalking and bullying her online. The process of all those cyber crime cases might be hampered. Popular cinema impacts the perceptions of not only the common man but also of the police, lawyers and judges. The question here is whether RGV’s film would be helpful for Amrutha in her fight for legal justice or merely empathise with the casteist parents of our society. The rape and murder of Disha is another complex case. Her parents and family members are finding it difficult to cope with the loss. There was police negligence, which was the primary accusation by Disha’s family. Four young men, who belonged to poor families, were arrested within 48 hours. All four were killed by police even before they were presented in the court. According to the police report, it was an “encounter”, though that is yet to be proved legally. Many Indian middle classes celebrated the alleged encounter. It was one of those rare moments in which urban Hindu middle class protests have overthrown the legal process in the world’s largest democracy. However, Disha’s family members said that they would have been happy if police had responded quickly without humiliating Disha’s mother by character assassination of her missing daughter. Varma making a film on Disha’s incident might make them relive their trauma. Another set of survivors in this case are family members of the accused who lost their loved ones to police bullets.

RGV’s interview with Renuka, the young pregnant wife of the one of the accused, on TV5 appears to be extremely insensitive. The filmmaker asks Renuka as to why she mourned the death of her husband, Chennakesavulu. None of the accused is proven guilty under law. RGV cannot assume that Renuka knew for sure that the accused had committed the crime. Moreover, Chennakesavulu being guilty has nothing much to do with Renuka mourning her husband’s death. Varma also asked questions with regard to the stigma on her unborn child as a son/daughter of a rapist! His interview was based on the prima facie assumptions of guilt of the accused. Renuka, barely educated, could not comprehend his questions.

Varma repeatedly said that two brutal rape cases in India, namely Nirbhaya and Disha, made him fear for his own life. He appeared to be unaware of the many cases of rape and murder of Dalit/Adivasi women in Hyderabad, successively reported after Disa’s murder. Only, those are not “sensational” but acts of casual sexist violence on dalit women. What of the rapes on dalit women in villages such as Khairlanji and rape and pogroms on Muslim women in Gujarat in 2002?

While Varma’s films like Lakshmi’s NTR (2019), Vangaveeti (2016) on Vangaveeti Ranga, and Rakta Charitra-1 and 2 on (2010) Paritala Ravi and Suri are based on incidents that happened a few decades ago, there was some distance in terms of elapsed time between the events and the making of these films. Those films may not have had as much impact on the survivors.

When Shekhar Kapur made Bandit Queen (1994) on Phoolan Devi, Arundhati Roy criticised Kapur for making a film on a rape survivor without her consent. While sexual violence can be triggering, domestic violence too may be so. Constructing sexual violence as the worst form of violence may be brahminical and sexist. Not all survivors have a similar belief system and similar views on sexual violence and it is evident in Phoolan Devi later using Kapur’s film for her political campaign. While consent is one ethical question, the larger question is whether Ram Gopal Varma can provide an objective political critique on caste and gender issues through his two films. What is important in depiction of sexual violence is to not open the doors for voyeurs. It is equally important not to be carried away by the brahminical values of “fatherly love” in depicting a (dis)honour killing.

If RGV’s films are based on the “poignant” story of Maruthi Rao’s fatherly love and presupposition of the accused as the perpetrators in Disha’s case, they may not be very different from the stories telecast in local Telugu media channels. Moreover, they might trigger violence against Amrutha or the family members of the accused in Disa’s case. Indian society has been known for condoning unprecedented mob -violence against dalits, adivasis and Muslims. If RGV is critical enough to discuss the police brutality, caste system and control over the sexuality of women in caste Hindu families and endemic sexual violence on dalit women, his movies will serve a larger purpose. Otherwise, his idea of making films on real-life incidents that took place in the nearest past will only be an exercise of his business model.

If RGV’s films do not serve a larger purpose, his idea of zeroing in on real-life incidents that took place in the nearest past will only be an exercise of his pet business model

Sowjanya Tamalapakula teaches at TISS, Hyderabad