Anurag to present 'The World Before Her' to get wider audience
Mumbai: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap will be presenting the award-winning documentary film 'The World Before Her' ahead of its release next month.
'The World Before Her', written and directed by Nisha Pahuja, shifts between the worlds of the Miss India pageant and a Hindu fundamentalist camp for girls. It is a powerful, controversial and intimate story about what it means to be a woman in contemporary India.
The award-winning film, which was premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2012, has been screened at more than 125 international film festivals. It has won 19 awards and distinctions, including the Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival 2012.
"I love this film and had heard about it for a long time. I decided to get behind it. I want to make sure it gets to as wider audience as possible. It is the first documentary I have launched and it feels like a narrative film," Anurag said.
A six-month long nationwide campaign which was launched on the International Women's Day on March 8, is being supported by three powerful women- Nandita Das, Deepa Mehta and Lisa Ray.
"The World Before Her' is powerful, insightful and poignant. It is about the complexities we need to deal with, especially in the area of gender empowerment. I think often fiction is unable to keep pace with reality and this documentary is a great example of that. We need good engaging documentaries in this country and we need to give them their due place," Nandita said.
Director Shimit Amin too will join hands to raise funds for this film ahead of its release on April 25.
Raving about the film, 'Chak De India' director Shimit Amin says, "When I saw the film I was blown away. I was scared and moved at the same time. This film is the only true portrait of anything that is going on here. It's incredible how it captures the current culture miles away from anything that has come out in recent times. I feel everyone here should see the film."
Apart from the theatrical release in metro cities, the makers aim to reach out to the wider audience by screening the film in educational institutes across the country and in parts of India where female infanticide and foeticide is high.
Former Miss India Pooja Chopra of 'Commando' fame, who was a near victim of female infanticide, plays a key role in the documentary. The makers of the film have set a goal of raising 50,000 US dollars in 40 days with the help of a crowd funding organisation, Kickstarter and have managed to raise more than 40 per cent of the amount in just over two weeks.
Writer-director Nisha Pahuja says they launched crowd funding campaign because they wanted to ensure the film and its message travels far and wide and reaches people who normally would not have access to a film like this.
"Stories have the ability to change the way people think about an issue because they are non-threatening. In order for women's rights to really take hold in India trying to get people to see differently is the key," Nisha said.
