Controversial Bengali filmmaker Milan Bhowmick has released the trailer for his film Nirbhoya, which draws from the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder.
Nirbhaya, meaning fearless, was the name that a section of the media gave the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who was assaulted and raped by six men in a private bus in Delhi on December 16 that year. She died of her injuries on December 29. A friend who was accompanying her was also beaten up. The six men included a juvenile. While one of them died in custody, the four surviving adults were sentenced to death.
The film centres on a journalist who is gangraped on a bus. It stars Meghali in the lead, with Kharaj Mukherjee as the vehicle’s driver and Ashish Vidyarthi as the investigating officer. The film was announced in 2013 and will reportedly be released on August 31.
Bhowmick’s last film, Danga The Riot, was about communal violence in Kolkata in 1946. After a long battle with the censor board, it was released in April this year. The film glorified SP Mookherjee, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was the precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Theatres in West Bengal reportedly refused to screen the film and Bhowmick, alleging that they were under pressure from the government, moved court. The Calcutta High Court in May ordered theatres to screen the movie.