Read on to know which filmmaker is being talked about, who comes from a Dalit background and has focused on caste discrimation in his films.
Not just actors, there have been many successul directors also who have faced tough situations in their lives and risen above them to make some brilliant and amazing films for the audiences. A popular name among these is Nagraj Manjule, who is a famous Marathi filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and actor.
Being a Dalit, Nagraj had to face caste discrimation throughout his life. The filmmaker himself shed light upon them in an interview with The Lallantop, where he said, "When I was young I didn't think there was anything like this. Perhaps this might have been happening to me, but I was not aware of it. But I started understanding this later. There were some houses inside which I could not go. Couldn't touch water. Couldn't touch food. Food used to come from some houses, but it could not go there from our house."
The filmmaker also recalled one of the incidents in which a person came to their home and asked him to remove slaughtered pigs from railway lines near his house. He recalled what he stated to that person, "Why have you come to my house, do it yourself. Don't tell me this. Go tell the railways." Nagraj added that he got so angry that his mother asked him to not speak to that man.
Nagraj has talked about caste discrimination in his films also. In 2010, he ventured into direction with a short film Pistulya about an 8-year-old boy from the backward community struggling to educate himself. It won National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film Direction. Nagraj made his feature film debut with Fandry in 2013. Depicting the love story of a 13-year-old Dalit boy, the Marathi film won the Indira Gandhi National Film Award for Best Debut Film of a Director.
Three years later, Nagraj made the biggest film of his career - Sairat. The romantic drama, which showcased the love story of two college students from different castes, went on to become a blockbuster and earned over Rs 100 crore at the box office globally. It still remains the highest-grossing film in the Marathi language.
Manjule made his Bollywood debut in 2022 with the sports drama Jhund. Amitabh Bachchan essayed the role of Vijay Barse, who has founded the NGO Slum Soccer helping the undprivileged children through football, in the biographical sports drama film. The film received rave reviews from audiences and critics, but didn't succeed at the box office.
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