Infant cast in 'Semkhor' died due to filmmaker Aimee’s negligence: Dimasa outfits

Days after Assam filmmaker Aimee Baruah’s National Award-winning film Semkhor courted controversy, with Dimasa activists taking offence to the depiction of the tribe in the movie, several Dimasa organisations on Thursday wrote to President Droupadi Murmu alleging that the film’s shooting cost the life of a baby.

The All Dimasa Students’ Union, Dimasa Students’ Union, Jadikhe Naisho Hoshom, United Dimasa Youth, and Dimasa Students’ Community Guwahati, have written to Murmu demanding that the film be withdrawn, Aimee apologise and action be taken over the death of an 84-day-old baby girl, who passed away in a week of the shoot.

In the memorandum, the activists alleged that the baby, Claring, was exposed to “cold and rough” weather conditions. The child later caught a cold and died four days later.

“Aimee Baruah did not take permission from the District Magistrate before casting an infant baby in the film, which she was supposed to, as per the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (CALPRA), 1985, and this is a clear case of violation of laws,” the memorandum states.

Aimee, the wife of Assam minister Piyush Hazarika, came under fire after she made some comments in a press conference that the people of Semkhor do not want development.

The furore led Mahendra Kemprai, former president of the All Dimasa Students’ Union, to file an FIR in the Haflong Police station complaining against the “wrongful depiction” of the Dimasa people.

In a Facebook post, on Thursday, Aimee defended the movie as a work of fiction and said “...It has never been our intention to hurt anyone's feelings or self-respect through this film... Nonetheless, we sincerely apologise if we have hurt anyone in any way.”

However, on Wednesday, Dimasa activist and member of the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council Daniel Langthasa released a video where the parents of the deceased toddler spoke to him at length about the case. The video has garnered 2.15 lakh views already. He says he has been asked why the parents decided to react now, two years after the shoot.

“I found out about the incident when a neighbour of the parents made a social media post and I reached out to them. They are simple people... They were hurt that the filmmakers did not even reach out to them even after the child’s passing,” he said.