Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma’s latest offering “Disha – Encounter” is facing the disapproval of the family of the young veterinarian who was gang-raped and murdered last year in the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Varma, known for basing his films on controversial, sensational subjects, released a 160-second trailer of the film on YouTube on September 26. The preview garnered three million views till Sunday.
“We were pained by the idea of the movie and now anguished by the various types of comments posted in response to the trailer,” Disha’s father said, demanding termination of the film’s shooting and release.
He approached the Telangana High Court with a petition seeking a direction to stop the film evidently based on his daughter’s sorrowful saga.
'Disha' was the name given by the Telangana police to conceal the identity of the 26-year-old doctor brutally raped and later set afire by four men on the night of November 27 at Shamshabad, near the Hyderabad-Bangalore highway.
In an outcome hailed as “swift justice” by the public, all four accused - in their twenties and hailing from Maktal in south Telangana, were shot dead by the police a week later on December 6.
The word “encounter” in the film's title refers to this police action, which is under inquiry by a Supreme Court appointed commission.
On Sunday, Disha’s family and friends staged a protest at Varma’s production house in Jubilee Hills.
“Varma has no permission from us to make the movie. He did not even approach us seeking our version or approval,” Disha’s father told reporters.
Varma asserts his movie as fictitious. “With regard to speculations on DISHA ENCOUNTER film I once again want to clarify it’s a fictional story based upon many cases from Nirbhaya rape onwards,” Varma said in a tweet on Saturday.
Disha’s parents charge that the movie aggrieving them “is not to bring societal awareness on crime on women but for Varma to make money.” They pleaded to all parents with daughters to condemn Varma’s venture "disregarding their suffering."
Varma is planning to release Disha Encounter on November 26, coinciding with one year of the incident.
Known for runaway hits like Shiva, Rangeela, Satya, Varma also has a long history of movies made on sensitive subjects.
In August, an SC/ST court in Telangana’s Nalgonda has halted the release of Varma’s movie Murder based on a petition by a woman, Amrutha. The film was structured on the father-daughter bond, and an inter-caste marriage in the Miryalaguda town. Amrutha’s husband Pranay’s "honour-killing" in Septwmber, 2018, was allegedly plotted by her father Maruthi Rao.
Varma’s movies centered on Andhra Pradesh politics like Lakshmi’s NTR, based on an alternative narrative of events leading to former Chief Minister NT Rama Rao’s death, have purportedly uneased the TDP.