British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, who made the controversial documentary India's Daughter on the Delhi gang rape victim, has now claimed that the victim's friend Avanindra Pandey asked for money to be part of the movie.
British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, who made the controversial documentary India's Daughter on the Delhi gang rape victim, has now claimed that the victim's friend Avanindra Pandey asked for money to be part of the movie.
In an interview with the Asian Age, Leslee also says that she and her team declined to pay Pandey any money, because they considered it to be 'immoral'. She rubbished reports that convict Mukesh Singh was paid for his role in the documentary, denying that anyone had been compensated for their work in the film. She pleaded that the team had 'tried every argument' to get Avanindra Pandey on board because he was the 'only living, surviving prosecution witness in this case'.
However, Udwin refused to tell Asian Age how much Pandey had asked for. "I'm not prepared to go into details. I can only tell you he asked for money, I refused."
"We continued to try and persuade him after that to come on board, we continued to say we would not pay but we really wanted and needed him to... we tried every argument we could think of, which we, of course, also believed in, and finally, in the final analysis, my co-producer Dibaang phoned Avanindra and said to him, we have a recording of Mukesh Singh, who drove the bus, saying that you hid behind the seats. We beg you Avanindra to come on and tell your version of what happened that night so that you can set the record straight, if there is a record to be set straight here. We thought he would respond to that. Still he didn't. At that point his answer was, "I can't, I can't. I'm in trouble, I’m in trouble", Leslee Udwin adds of Pandey..
The victim's friend had also claimed that one Satendra, who was shown as the victim's tutor in the movie, was not known to him at all. Pandey had described the documentary as 'fake', a claim rubbished by Udwin. In fact, Udwin states that it was the victim's family who introduced Satendra to her.
"Well, that’s his problem, isn’t it. I mean... are you telling me Satendra doesn’t exist? I could give you his phone number, and you can phone him up and you can ask him. He was asked by the family in 2006, before Avanindra even knew the victim, he was asked to tutor her, he did. He tutored her. He became her friend, he became a very, very close family friend. And you asked in your written question, I believe, how did I meet Satendra. The family introduced me to him."
India's Daughter meanwhile, continues to remain banned in India. Udwin had also slammed the ban, calling it 'muzzling of free speech' and 'international suicide' for India.
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