Suparn Verma: What happens in India does impact everything around the world

Mumbai, Nov 5 (IANS) Director-writer Suparn Verma, who is awaiting the release of his upcoming film ‘Haq’, has detailed the reason behind making the film.

The director spoke with IANS in the run up to the release of the film, and shared that the film deals with an important subject and a watershed moment in women’s rights in India. Given India is the largest democracy, he said that whatever happens in India does have an impact across the world.

The film is inspired from the landmark case of Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum. Shah Bano, a 62-year-old Muslim woman, sought maintenance from her husband after being divorced through triple talaq. The Supreme Court ruled in her favor under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code, stating that maintenance applies to all citizens irrespective of religion.

The verdict sparked outrage among conservative Muslim groups, who argued that it interfered with Muslim Personal Law. Facing political pressure, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress (INC) government passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, effectively nullifying the judgment and restoring the community’s personal law autonomy.

When asked if at any point during the making of the film, he felt the pressure considering the magnitude of the story, the director told IANS, “So, for me personally here is the thing,a lot of times I get asked that were you scared to take the subject up. I do not approach creating anything from a space of fear, it has to be a space of passion, of love, of time to do it. And curiosity, and then you deep dive into it”.

He further mentioned, “In subjects like this which hold so much of importance in our everyday life, they are of national importance and as Yami said we are one of the biggest democracies in the world, one of the most important countries in the world and what happens in India does impact everything around the world as well and vis-a-vis and something as endemic as a woman's rights is very universal in nature”.

He went on, “It is not like this is just unique to Indian women or women of a certain community, women across the world suffer the same prejudice, face the same struggles, the same biases and women are fighting them every single day in every role that they are in, professionally or personally. For me, ‘Haq’ is a celebration of a woman, it is a deeply feminist film, yes, it has a lot of male members but that I think is immaterial, you do not have to be visually impaired to make a film about visually impaired people either, I think you need to have empathy, that is something severely lacking in the world today and I come from a space that I want to take on matters heads on and topics of conversation which need to be talked about today which are of very important nature, putting them under the carpet is not going to solve things, let us tackle them, talk about them, converse about them in a healthy, nuanced, balanced fashion”.

The director said if we have an open and nuanced dialogue about things which demand attention, we will end up being much richer as a nation, as an audience.

--IANS

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