NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Deepa Mehta moves from Ganga to Narmada

Neeraj Mishra in Bhopal

Benares of the 1920s will be recreated in an as yet undisclosed location in Madhya Pradesh. This was decided after a short telephonic conversation between Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and filmmaker Deepa Mehta.

After a tumultuous week in Varanasi, Mehta and executive producer Ajay Virmani, who were literally hounded out by activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Shiv Sena and an unco-operative Uttar Pradesh government, have finally found refuge under a chief minister bent upon taking on the right-wing forces.

Narmada will replace Ganga as the river of action in the film that has women in the lead. Mehta will thus follow in the footsteps of Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy, who had converged on the Narmada earlier, though for other reasons. Mehta will probably shoot in Maheshwar and Onkareshwar, Hindu pilgrimage sites in Khargone district already made famous by Patkar's anti-dam activists.

Digvijay Singh told rediff.com, "All co-operation will be extended to the unit of Water and their safety will be guaranteed by the state government.''

He laughed off suggestions that the script would be revised to suit the fundamentalists. "As far as we are concerned, anyone who wants to express anything through an artistic medium will be encouraged," he said.

Mehta is likely to reach Bhopal tomorrow along with Virmani and her lead actresses, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das.

The shooting is likely to begin on February 12 if the director approves of the location.

Highly placed sources in the state home department said the police would deal with any eventuality. In fact, tourism department officials are upbeat about this development, welcoming it as good publicity for some of the lesser-known locations along the Narmada.

Senior bureaucrats in the state already take a lot of interest in films and film personalities. A film festival that includes hits like Taal and The Runaway Bride, organised by the state IAS association, is currently taking place in Bhopal. This factor may have had some role to play in Singh's invitation to Mehta.

The chief minister apparently gave an open-ended invitation to the filmmaker through Bollywood personalities Sridevi and Anil Kapoor who had gone to meet him after taking part in the inauguration of the IAS film festival. The actors had broached the subject of artistic freedom with Singh and sought protection for filmmakers.

While the duo may not have acted on Mehta's behalf, the offer was widely reported in the press, which may have encouraged Mehta to talk to Singh.

Singh's invitation to her comes on the heels of his stated stand against the Bajrang Dal, which plans to hold its national convention in Bhopal from February 18. Singh has banned the convention and the district administration has imposed section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which prohibits the assembly of more than four persons, in the area.

Most observers see the invitation as an extension of the chief minister's hard line against the right wing.

Surprisingly, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been silent on the issue so far and its leaders are still making up their minds on what stand to take.

Mehta now says she will go ahead with her original script, which will require building a set of a home for widows. The story revolves around the home and the rebellion that is sparked when a seven-year-old child widow is brought there and innocently begins to questions the basis of her status.

Mehta says her aim is to expose the shortcomings of the Hindu faith so that it can cleanse itself.

EARLIER REPORTS:
Deepa looking for a new site to shoot Water
Congress, Bajrang Dal on a collision course in Madhya Pradesh

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report