SHAHID TAKES ON INFLATED ELECTRICITY BILLS
In big Indian cities, electricity has become an indispensable part of people’s lives. But not many are aware that its availability continues to be a major issue in large parts of rural India. Interestingly, one thing that’s common — across rural as well as urban areas — are inflated electricity bills, and how it affects common people. Shahid Kapoor-starrer next Batti Gul Meter Chalu (BGMC) revolves around this “real and relevant” problem.
“Yes, BGMC deals with the issue of very high electricity bills and how the common man has nowhere to go and fight it out. It also revolves around massive power cuts in rural areas where they are still to see even a single bulb. But electricity is a fundamental human right,” says the actor.
Interestingly, the first person who got Shahid’s attention towards the problem was his wife, Mira Rajput Kapoor. “Actually, the script had been with me for a long time. When she got to know about it, she told me, ‘Shahid, you don’t realise this is a very big issue in the country and you must do the film,’” he says.
Terming it “a pan-India problem” and a “very real and palpable issue,” Shahid feels the common man “deals with it on a daily basis.” “Electricity is a fundamental human right, but as per estimates, there are still 32 million villages where there is not even a single bulb. In many cases, the pressure (of high electricity bills) has been so much that people have committed suicides. So, there are lots of such real instances from which this film is inspired,” he says.
Even though
BGMC is based in Uttarakhand,
Shahid feels it “represents a problem that several people [across the country] feel is something that they are oppressed by. So, it was a very exciting, fresh and original script for me to take up,” he says about the Shree Narayan Singh (of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha; 2017 fame) directed film.