Documentary on women in India comes home

INDIA-BORN Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja, known for her 2012 documentary, The World Before Her, was asked to try the Indian market two years ago but did not show much excitement then.

After the December 16 Delhi gang-rape last year, however, she was convinced that it was time to show the film to Indian audiences.

“People have been talking to me about releasing The World Before Her in India since 2012. I was very exhausted making the film, so I wasn’t entertaining the idea.

“But the Delhi gang-rape was the turning point, so I thought I have to make sure the film comes out,” said the Delhi-born filmmaker, whose parents moved to Toronto, Canada, when she was four years old.

The documentary is about the complex and conflicting environment for young girls in India. It focuses on two young women — Ruhi Singh, who aspires to become Miss India, and Prachi Trivedi, a militant Hindu nationalist with the Durga Vahini — participating in two different types of training camps.

It will hit the screens in five Indian cities, including the capital and Bangalore. It recently premiered in Mumbai, where the thumbs up it received from the film fraternity boosted Pahuja’s morale.

“It was amazing. It was emotional for me because I’ve been working on the project for six years,” said Pahuja, who met her husband, cameraman Mrinal Desai, while working on the film.

Acclaimed Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Kashyap “had heard about the film last year in September or October. A mutual friend later introduced us. I gave him a copy of the film and he saw it and decided to support it,” said Pahuja.

“We wanted the film to be released post the elections. The film is unbiased and neutral. It’s important to show a film like this when things aren’t emotionally charged,” she said.

She plans to tour India, starting in October and visiting areas where the number of cases of female infanticide are high.

Pahuja said the process of making The World Before Her was an interesting one.

“I never set out to make a film on women’s rights. Initially, in my head, I knew it had to do with India. I was going to use Miss India as a platform to explore the cultural changes. Then I met Pooja Chopra — a young woman who won the Miss India contest.

“It was an extraordinary story . . . she was supposed to be killed [at birth] because she is a girl. Her father wanted her mother to kill her,” she said.

The Commando actress’s story left her speechless.

“I knew there were women’s rights issues in India. I know there are issues of equality, but I didn’t know about the level of injustice.

“When she told me, everything changed for me. The whole film changed. Prachi told me about the camp. Then it became clear to me what it needed to be.” — Indo-Asian News Service