Actress Nandita Das speaks to Subhash K Jha about the drama Bawandar(Sandstorm), which released in 2000.
25 years after release Bawandar remains one of your most important films?
I can’t believe it has been 25 years since Bawandar was released! But the experience of shooting the film is still fresh in my mind. As we know, it was inspired by the life of Bhanwari Devi, the brave Rajasthani woman who was gangraped for working against child marriage.
I know. Was it tough?
It was a tough shoot. In the bitter cold winter, we were in the Rajasthan desert. While it was difficult to learn to carry pots of water on my head, milking a cow and doing pottery as a pro, the toughest, emotionally and physically, was to do the gangrape scene.
How did you manage to remain sane while doing something so insane?
It was traumatic. The actor in me was taken over by the woman in me, even though it was all play-acting, it made me feel so violated. I believe one doesn’t have to go through every experience to feel empathy, but strangely doing this role made me really understand how deep the trauma of such violence can be.
It must have scarred you permanently?
I shuddered to think what Bhanwari Devi must have gone through in reality. The case got a lot of media and civil society attention. But even today, she continues to fight for justice. From a victim she became an activist. And while it has been 24 years for the film, it is 32 years since she began her fight against the perpetrators.
Bawandar became a rallying point for victims of such sexual violation?
Such cases of violence continue unabated and we express our outrage from time to time. But imagine, if films like Bawandar were not made, women didn’t break the silence and civil society didn’t protest, things would have been far worse. The film was shown at festivals, universities and theatres. It was the pre-digital era. In many post screening interactions with the audience, women came up to me and shared their own stories of abuse. It triggered a necessary conversation around the subject. It will always remain an important film for me.
