MUMBAI, India—Shonali Bose, the filmmaker who made ‘Amu’, a film on the anti-sikh [genocide of 1984] has said that India’s official TV Channel, Doordarshan chose not to telecast the film despite it being winner of two National Awards.
Shonali who is now making a film ‘Margarita. With a Straw’ on the subject of cerebral palsy has told IANS that her film “Amu” in 2005 was a rare feature film to be made on the 1984 anti-Sikh [genocide]. Though it helped sensitise people about the issue, making it was an uphill task.
“Since it was a low budget film, I thought I would easily get funds from the Sikh community. But I found that they did not want to remember that darkest period in their history,” Shonali told IANS in an interview.
“Then, while shooting, a prominent politician threatened us if we continued. Finally, even after winning two National Awards, Doordarshan, for whom it is mandated to show every National Award winning film, refused to show it,” she said.
She realised the hard way why even after two decades there was no film on the 1984 [genocide]—and not another made till now—for as far as taboo subjects go, in Punjabi dominated Bollywood, this was up there.
