Bollywood actor-filmmaker Kangana Ranaut confirmed she has been working on a film about the Bilkis Bano case, however, revealed the roadblocks in the project.
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In a recent fan interaction on the micro-blogging site X (formerly termed Twitter), Kangana Ranaut revealed that she has been doing her research and has a script ready for the Bilkis Bano case, but no OTT platforms are willing to back the title.
The statement from Ranaut came after the latest order from India’s top court on Monday, quashing the release of 11 Hindu men who had been jailed for life for gang-raping Bilkis Bano, a pregnant Muslim woman, and murdering her relatives during riots in Gujarat state in 2002.
Following the order from the Supreme Court of India, an X user asked Ranaut if she would be interested in telling the story of Bilkis Bano with a powerful movie. In his post on the platform, the user named Varun Verma asked the ‘Queen’ actor, “You will be able to show the world, how a state government with some terrorist outfit unleashed terror on a particular community. It resulted in the rape of a woman and death of her toddler daughter along with six others from the family. You can show, how Bilkis fought against the corrupt system, when the men responsible were released unlawfully and garlanded in a sic society. And how she won today. Will you? Will you do it for Bilkis Bano
, feminism or least humanity?”To which Ranaut replied, “I want to make that story I have the script ready, researched and worked on it for three years but Netflix, Amazon Prime India and other studios wrote back to me that they have clear guidelines they don’t do so-called politically motivated films.”
“Jio Cinema said we don’t work with Kangana because she supports BJP and Zee is going through a merger, what are my options?” she claimed further.
Bilkis Bano Case
The victim, Bilkis Bano, was three months pregnant when she was gang-raped and seven of her relatives, including her three-year-old daughter, were murdered during the riots that killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister at the time and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party still rules the state.
The men, convicted in 2008, were freed by the Gujarat government in August 2022 after the prison they were being held in recommended their release considering the time served and their good behaviour.
Their release drew condemnation from the victim’s husband, lawyers, and politicians.
Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the remission, including one by the victim herself.
In its verdict on Monday, the court held that Gujarat did not have the authority to reduce the sentence since the trial was moved to Mumbai, making neighbouring Maharashtra state responsible for the decision.
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