March 10, 2026 04:38 pm (IST)
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India's Daughter maker urges Modi to allow its airing
New Delhi, Mar 5 (IBNS) British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, whose documentary India's Daughter on the events in the aftermath of the fatal gang-rape of Nirbhaya in Dec 2012 was banned after protests over the interview of one of the unrepentant rapists, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the film's airing in India for greater good.
"PM Modi I appeal to you... do not allow this to get out of hand," urged the filmmaker on a TV interview. She said when Modi was the chief minister in Gujarat one of her films was shown as the inaugural film in a festival.
She said if the film is not shown in India, then the world would say "how dare India bans a documentary which is in public interest."
"I am deeply pained," said Udwin after a Delhi court ordered a ban on the film and the government said it would not allow the film's screening and investigate how permission was granted for the rapist's interview inside Tihar jail.
"I am deeply disappointed," said the filmmaker who said the making of the film was her pure and genuine commitment.
"I am frightened is what is going to happen next," she said, referring to the reactions from across the world since she claimed she had tried to show in the protests that followed that India is changing and serious about it.
Writer, columnist and social commentator Shobhaa De earlier said the banned documentary India's Daughter, which interviews one of the rapists of Nirbhaya, should be made compulsory viewing.
In an article in NDTV, which was to beam the now banned documentary, wrote: "India's Daughter' must be made compulsory viewing in our schools, colleges and government offices."
"Because if there is one thing any society that calls itself civilized must not shun, it is the truth," she wrote.
Attacking the Union Home Minister for supporting the ban, she wrote: "Rajnath Singh - hold up a mirror. See what's going on around you. Deal with it. The real 'embarrassment' India needs to confront is its own horrific reality... and the shame that goes with it. Not a bold documentary."
As 'India's Daughter', the documentary based on the 2012 fatal Delhi gang-rape, faces a ban in the country, Nirbhaya's father said on Thursday that everyone should watch the film.
"Everyone should watch the film. If a man can speak like that in jail, imagine what he would say if he was walking free," the father said.
"The documentary exposes what is happening. I don't understand why it was banned. A ban will only make people curious. But if the country has taken a decision, we have to support it," he told NDTV.
The documentary by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin includes interviews of Nirbhaya's parents, doctors, police, lawyers and one of the rapists. It was aired by the BBC on Wednesday night.
The documentary kicked up controversy as it includes certain comments of Mukesh Singh, one of the four men sentenced to death for rape and murder holding the woman responsible for the fate she met.
In India it was to be telecast on NDTV.
"Talking in Parliament does not help. Why are the convicts still alive? Why have they not been hanged yet? Who are they to tell a woman what to wear or what to do? How will the campaign 'Beti Padao, Beti Bachao' (educate, save our daughters) work if our daughters are not alive?" Nirbhaya's father said.
Nirbhaya's mother said, "It is not about the ban. Why are these convicts still alive? It seems we will die fighting for justice but they will outlive us."
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