While receiving raves abroad, Deepa Mehta is annoyed that her documentary on Indian widows finds no takers here.
Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta is upset that her one-and-a-half hour documentary titled The Forgotten Woman, which traces the lives of Indian widows, hasn't found any takers in her native land India, this despite the fact it has been getting rave reviews at several international festivals.
"I made this documentary with my brother Dilip Mehta (an internationally reputed photographer) which traces where the widows come from. Navdeep in Bengal is one of the places from where lots of women travel to Varanasi or Vrindavan. V Mohini Giri and Ginny Srivastava's great work in Vrindavan and Rajasthan has also been touched upon in the documentary. Unfortunately, though this film was well received, it has not found any takers in India. I asked TV channels to air it so that people can see what the reality is for these widows. They too are not interested," says Deepa.
Giri was nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize and in Vrindavan she has been operating a home for elderly widows. Ginny is the founder of The Association of Strong Women Alone, which has helped around 20,000 women in Rajasthan to find economic independence.
Deepa, however, is hoping her forthcoming film will be better received in India. Titled Heaven on Earth (Videsh in Hindi), with Preity Zinta in the lead, the film deals with domestic violence. Preity plays an abused Punjabi bride in the movie, which has already premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
Preity told DNA, "My heart breaks when I hear about such stories. I think it's better to kill a woman than destroy her spirit by constant battering." Preity says even shooting the scenes were traumatic.
"There was a scene where my husband hits me. I couldn't let the crew watch me enacting the scene because it was humiliating. I thought it was more intimate than playing out a love scene! Imagine what a woman must be going through when she gets beaten up in front of her children!"
:
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}