Even before its release, Bastar: The Naxal Story, the latest movie by Sudipto Sen and Vipul Shah, is proving to be as divisive as their previous film, The Kerala Story. A teaser released on Tuesday showed actor Adah Sharma as IPS officer Neerja Madhavan launching into a monologue claiming that Leftists are joining hands with Naxals in Bastar to divide Bharat.
Many Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students are riled by the film’s claim that there were “celebrations in JNU” on the killing of Indian soldiers. Bastar: The Naxal Story, which its makers say is based on a true incident, will release on 15 March.
“JNU celebrated when 76 soldiers were killed in Bastar. Just think about it. Where do they adopt this mentality from? Leftists, liberals, pseudo-intellectuals from cities are behind those in Bastar who are planning to divide India. I’ll shoot these leftists dead in public. Hang me then,” Shah’s character says in the film’s teaser.
More than 50 JNU students on Thursday staged a protest burning an effigy of Sen and the movie’s posters.
“We demand immediate action against Sudipto Sen, Adah Sharma, Vipul Amruthlal Shah against the open call for genocide of JNU students. Such a step to mislead people is a criminal act. All legal steps will be taken and we appeal to our alumni and VC to take urgent action,” wrote Aishee Ghosh, President of JNUSU on X (formerly Twitter)
After Kerala, a Bastar ‘story’
Sen, who grew up in Jalpaiguri, hopes that his film will create more ‘awareness’ on the Naxal movement. “I myself have felt it expanding across various states of India,” he told ThePrint. He chose to highlight two themes in the teaser—the number of soldiers killed and his claim that “left-liberals helped the Naxalites”.
“This news was published everywhere that the death of soldiers was celebrated in JNU. This is the fact. There is no political statement in this, but this is definitely a political film,” he said. In 2010, some student groups like RSS’ student wing ABVP and NSUI had alleged that a meeting was organised by the JNU Forum Against War on People to “celebrate” the killing of 75 CRPF personnel and one state police constable by Naxals in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. The organisers had rejected the allegation, saying the meeting was held to oppose ‘Operation Green Hunt’, a ‘search and comb’ operation launched by the state police and central forces.
Sen accepts the state failure to resolve this entire issue. “We have not left any aspect of the Naxal movement. Those who watch the film will get all the answers,” he said.
He wants the film to be screened at JNU just as The Kerala Story was in May 2023.
The film was shot over two months in the dense forest of Dandakaranya. According to scriptwriter Amarnath Jha, who wrote Decode Red: Inside Story of Maoist Operations, people are ill-informed about the gory world of Naxals.
“We want to tell through the film what was the real ecosystem in which these people were supporters. And from where did they get impunity as they continued to move forward for 50 years. This film tells how the Naxalites survived for so many years,” said Jha.
Sen’s another film, In The Name of Love—Melancholy of God’s Own Country, had led to violence in JNU during its screening at the university in 2018.
Similar to his unfounded and since-debunked numerical claim in The Kerala Story—’32,000 women recruited by ISIS’—Sen offers a number in The Naxal Story as well: ‘more than 15,000 Indian soldiers killed by Naxals’.
But scriptwriter Jha is clear on what the film’s focus is. “At the core of this film is the human emotion of how one can celebrate death.”
For Sen, this movie is a soliloquy of his 50 years and he claims the viewers will go through a journey to a dangerous, unknown world. Sen was born in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, which is 50 km from Naxalbari, where the Naxal uprising originated in 1967. “I saw the evolution and transformation of this movement as an extension of my life,” he says.
JNU on edge
Sixteen different student wings—including AISA, AISF, NSUI, SFI—under the United Students of India released a statement condemning the teaser, calling it part of a “fascistic project to tarnish Indian Left”. “It is evident that the brand of nationalism that is being sold to the country is Political Hindutva. We appeal [to] the student community to stand against this propaganda film and uphold secular values,” reads the statement.
Trailer of ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story has been shared recently via social media.The teaser of this movie closes with a statement by the lead character stating she would shoot to death left liberal pseudo intellectuals and attacks the university students especially from JNU. pic.twitter.com/hpZfIEchg6
— SFI (@SFI_CEC) February 7, 2024
RSS leader J Nandakumar has come out in support of the film and shared the teaser on X, calling the makers of the film “courageous storytellers”.
Here is the eagerly awaited teaser of, the courageous storytellers’ “Bastar” The naxal story. pic.twitter.com/Uyt89BHTRU
— J Nandakumar (@kumarnandaj) February 6, 2024
Based on the teaser, tribal leaders have criticised the film. “These people just want to earn money by making a film on Naxalites. The same was done by making a film on Kashmiri Pandits. The reality is not shown in the film. The sentiments of the public are played with. In this film too, the conflict between Naxalites and soldiers will be shown and the real issue of tribals will be left behind,” said Chhotubhai Vasava, a former MLA from Gujarat who founded the Bharatiya Tribal Party.
But Jha says an attempt has been made to tell the story from a human angle. “The pain of the entire Bastar region is expressed in the film,” he claims.
As the makers of the film get ready for the screening at JNU, ABVP says it will support the film. “Such films expose the people who break the country. There are people in JNU too, especially in the faculty, who support Naxalites,” alleged Umesh Chandra Ajmeera, president of the ABVP at JNU.
(Edited by Prashant)