Unity in diversity doesn’t exist in India, says Shubham Singh

Filmmaker Shubham Singh, who is making his directorial debut with Penalty, says that Unity in diversity doesn’t exist in India and racism is a reality in India.

Set against the backdrop of Football, Penalty stars Kay Kay Menon, Manjot Singh, Lukram Smil, Bijou Thaangjam and Shashank Arora in the leading roles. The film addresses the burning issue of racism in sports.

Talking about this conception of film and objective behind tackling a sensitive issue, filmmaker Shubham Singh said, “Unity in diversity is just name sake; something like this doesn’t exist in India, racism is a reality here. People from other regions are mistreated in different regions; it is not just about north-east kids getting mistreated in north India”

“The issue of discrimination and racism is deep rooted among us; sometimes we don’t even realize that just jokingly we have offended people. In my college days, a kid committed suicide because of it, and ever since I wanted to address this issue and make a film based on it” added filmmaker.

The John Abraham starrer Goal and Shah Rukh Khan starrer Chak De, also addressed the same issue in Indian sports but filmmaker Shubham Singh says his film deals with reality.

Talking about the comparison with other films, he said, “Actually football is just a backdrop. I wanted my film to have a huge reach and sports, especially football has worldwide reach. Other films which are made with football or other sports as backdrop, are about the sport itself but this film is about reality”

“The movie deals with the politics which takes place outside the field and inside as well, the biases, which doesn’t allow players from different states to get selected, the film talks about those issues. Football is just a medium; the story is based on racism” added Shubham.

Talking about working with Kay Kay Menon, filmmaker Shubham said, “Kay Kay Menon has this aura about him, he has this amazing personality. He is playing this layered role of a football manager; the character is negative and positive. We didn’t just need a face; we needed someone who can act as well. So he was onboard with the first narration. The story is strong and to be honest, this is the reality of society”

The film is produced by Nilesh Sakhiya, Ritu Shrivastava and Aditya Shrivastava, under the banner of Rudrakshh Films and is releasing on Worldwide on 19th July, 2019.