The filmmaker has started a campaign ‘I care, I react’ following the Delhi incident urging for activism at a personal level.
The first socially active response from Tollywood to the Delhi gang rape incident has come from filmmaker Sekhar Kammula who has launched a social consciousness initiative online with a simple tagline ‘I care, I react’.
“The Delhi gang-rape got me going. I feel that in India, particularly in AP, crimes against women aren't dealt with aggression like cases of caste and other issues,” says Sekhar.
Films and music have been blamed for instigating violence against women in India and Sekhar's website indiareact.org addresses that too: “A day will come when people will dread making baseless comments on women's issues, films will stop having content that are insulting to women and politicians will be forced to wake up and start making new laws.“
The director, however, is clear that change needs to come at the level of the people. “We have so far cribbed and complained, gone online and registered protests on demeaning posters and bad portrayals. But it is time we said `I won't watch it'!”
THE HITS: Mahesh slaps Samantha in ‘Dookudu’. Ravi Teja slaps Deeksha Seth in ‘Nippu’. Tamanna too gets slapped a couple of times.
Kajal Agarwal took a slap from Ravi Teja in ‘Sarocharu’. Earlier Kajal also took a slap from Jr. NTR for ‘Brindavanam’.
FILMS TO BLAME? Mahesh Babu, despite his chocolate boy looks, is notorious with women on screen. In ‘Businessman’, he kidnaps Kajal Agarwal and kisses her and dreams of sexual intimacy. His recently released films have vulgar language, which goes to such an extent that the Censor Board has muted many dialogues in his films. Ravi Teja goes through crass sexual antics to woo his woman. He, too, has slapped almost all of his heroines.
THE FILMMAKERS: The godfather of Telugu film directors Dr. K. Raghavendra Rao, too, has thrived on sexuality -some might even call it vulgarity. VV. Vinayak, Puri Jaganath, Raja Mouli etc., are also known for violent imagery. After having launched the Facebook page to invite more protesters on Wednesday, the campaign has gained a lot of mileage.
Badges that read “I care, I react” are also being distributed Some filmmakers believe titillation will fetch them results and aren't worried about results; such films should be blamed -Suresh Babu, producer Rape scenes and cabaret have vanished from Tollywood, but some still show women as `sex objects'. It can influence unscrupulous guys.
-Srinivasa Reddy, director among people to accelerate the campaign. “All I aim at doing is to tell people to protest in their own capacity and their own spaces. The badges aim at sparking off that one-minute crucial conversation that sensitises.”
The director adds that sustaining interest among the public and keeping their attention span focussed on the issues is the biggest challenge.
Sekhar visited a few corporates on Thursday to discuss the issue. He aims at going door-to-door, to corporates, schools and even banks to sensitise people on the “larger issue, but on a personal scale“. The director, who is known for his modesty, concludes, “I may not have the solution. But I aim creating a pressure group and in the future the campaign will focus on other issues as well.
But this is where we begin.”
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130104/entertainment-tollywood/article/sekhar-steps-sensitise
