WHY ABHIMANYU

I have been wanting to make a film about CSA(child sexual abuse) for the last three years. Had worked on a full length feature film script called You and I which was about a girl who has the fear of the male touch because of being abused as a child.

As a person i love children and as i read stories in the newspaper and other research material about children being abused I am angry and anguished. But then what is the point. The idea is to act. to take the feeling of anger and transform it into positive energy...energy for change. For me that positive energy takes the form of cinema. Cinema that cares and believes in change.

You and I lay unmade for three years.... none of our male stars wanted to do the film and the corporates and other financiers/producers just thought that this is not what people want to see. after all what are we.?... not artists.... but paid workers ... creating to suit taste palette .... not to guide and make better audiences

For me the solution is not to sit and cry, but to find a way to do what i believe in. to speak for the silences in society.... to speak for Harish and many more like him who have been abused as a child. At this point i though why not make 20 minute short films with stories that need to be told and link them together so that they can be released as a feature film in India. The ultimate goal is the normal audience and not festivals.

I decided that lets keep the budget so low that the risk factor be minimum. I would have a cast and crew who trusts my intention and help me do this at minimum costs. Anticlock films(Sanjay Suri and myself) would invest half of the budget and the other half we decided to raise from an interactive audience.

The idea is not just money.... but an active audience which cares and makes it possible for a certain kind of films to be made. They participate in making of OUR film. We jointly own the film.

For us ABHIMANYU is an experiment... an experiment to prove that the audience cares.... and I need all of you to start actively contribute in making this film.... Give it a thought.... we can do this together....