'Sairat' fame actress Rinku Rajguru who is playing a pivotal role in the upcoming film '200 Halla Ho' says that unless the new generation starts creating awareness and protests against the age-old brutality on the Dalit community, especially on women, change will not come. She feels cinema and constant conversation could be the agent of change in the matter.
Rinku told IANS: "I think the first time when Sarthak sir (director of the film) narrated the story, I was moved but the intensity of the reality on how Dalit women are brutalised every day, and no one even raises a voice against the crime thinking, 'ye log to hai hi Dalit, neech jaat, iske saath to galat kaam chalta hai'. As a youngster, my blood just boiled! How? Like how could it happen, Dalit girls get raped in daylight and no one even bothers to talk about it! Rape is a crime but here, it is projected as if being Dalit is a crime so society will treat you like this and you have to deal with it. I say, why?"
The 20-year-old actress took a pause and expressed her anger. Then she went on adding, "I hope, once the film releases and everyone watches this, the real victims, instead of feeling victimised, should protest and ask for justice. Unless we create awareness, this age-old brutality based on gender and caste will never be stopped."
In the film, she is playing the character of a young Dalit girl named Asha who gathers people from the community and protests against the rape and murder of a Dalit girl and how from police to court everyone refuses to consider the case and punish the criminal.
Asked about how she prepared herself for the character, Rinku said, "Since it was a well-written script, I was just following that, and whatever Sarthak sir was telling me. Very consciously, I did not watch films in which that community has been represented because I do not want to caricaturise the portrayal of a Dalit girl in Asha. I know people tend to approach it like 'dalit ladki hai to aise hi honge, waise hi bolenge etc.' I wanted Asha to be a hope and that fire that can bring a change in the brutal practice of our society."
The film '200 Halla Ho', also featuring Amol Palekar, Barun Sobti, Sahil Khattar, Saloni Batra, Indraneil Sengupta and Upendra Limaye, releases on ZEE5 on August 20.
(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)