MUMBAI : Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Sudipto Sen, and Adah Sharma teamed together again on a movie over a year after The Kerala Story. The movie, titled Bastar – The Naxal Story, is said to be based on actual Naxal episodes that occurred in Chhattisgarh. Due to its political sense, some online users labeled the teaser when it was released as "propaganda.”

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The movie's teaser features Adah's character, Neerja Mathur, an IPS officer, criticizing JNU and saying that liberals, leftists, vampanthi, and pseudo-intellectuals should all be put to death. And a lot of people are upset about that. Adah defends the projection of such controversial talks that resulted in dissent from a particular sector in an exclusive interview with the popular news portal.

She said, “When you play a tough cop like Neeraj Mathur in Bastar, I want people to think that I portrayed her in the strongest, most fearless, and powerful way. I want people to believe each word I’m saying in the film. When she says that 76 jawans were butchered and that she wants to gun them down, she’s saying it out of frustration because she saw the jawans being shot and chopped into pieces. I might not say it as Adah but Neerja would.”

However, she isn’t turning a deaf ear to those calling out the film for the approach taken by the makers. “Once people watch the film, they’ll understand what it’s about. But like I said even during The Kerala Story, it’s a democracy – people can choose to watch a film or not, and they can comment after watching a film or not. And we should also be respecting those who are making comments without watching the film because that’s their choice,” states Adah.

Propaganda and patriotism frequently cross each other's boundaries. And for the 31-year-old,  Bastar is only a movie that showcases one's love for their country.  She says, “It’s about our 76 jawans being butchered. And I think that’s just wrong. I’m a citizen first and I believe that if someone harms our armed forces, that’s wrong. We’ve seen a lot of movies where they’re being attacked by external forces. But here, people from within our country are harming our jawans when they aren’t even at war. Did that really happen? Yes, it did. We can all check that information as it’s available to everyone for free.”

Speaking of how the Bastar idea of patriotism appeals to her sensitivities, Adah continues, “The reason why we’re able to sit and talk peacefully is because of our jawans. We should all be thankful to them. They (Naxals) butchered the people of their own country and I don’t stand for them because I love my country. For me, Bastar is a film about patriotism. So, I will stand by my film.”

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Credit- News 18