NEETU CLEANING UP BHOJPURI CINEMA

Neetu Chandra is set on changing the image of her language — and a National Award proves her mettle

Actor Neetu Chandra, who became a producer with films such as Deswa and Mithila Makhaan, says that she wants to make Bhojpuri films to clean the image of her mother tongue.

Asked why she wants to produce Bhojpuri films despite doing content-driven Hindi films, Neetu says, “I come from Bihar, where Bhojpuri films are seen as soft porn, cheap films with double meaning. The moment you hear Bhojpuri, you don’t want to be associated with it.

“[Bhojpuri films] are looked down upon and rightly so... There are reasons. [But] I refuse to accept that this is the cinema of my mother tongue. That’s why I and my brother Nitin, who had all the achievements and education to do Hindi cinema, chose to do Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi films. We wanted to clean the image of our mother tongue, which has been maligned.”

She clarifies that the point of turning producer isn’t to make a big profit.

“[Producing Bhojpuri films] has nothing to do with business. It’s like they say ‘if you want change, you have to be the change,’” says Neetu, who has acted in films such as No Problem (2010), Mumbai Cutting (2011) and Shooter (to release in 2018).

Her brother Nitin Chandra is a National Award-winning director. He was awarded this year for Mithila Makhaan, which was named the Best Maithili Film, and is the first film from BiharJharkhand to get a National Award. With her brother, Neetu runs her production house. They make Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi films, and other content for their platform NeoBihar.

Asked if she’d prefer to produce regional content films or commercial Hindi films, the actor says, “I think contentdriven films with a commercial angle is what should be done.” About her first production, Neetu says, “The Bhojpuri industry mafia didn’t let us release Deswa. So we came up with a platform (YouTube channel) where we’ll release the film and work on content-based videos.”