Doc on persecuted Pak religious minorities living in India premieres in US

PTI, Jul 13, 2021, 11:07 AM IST

Washington DC: The documentary ‘Stateless’ depicting the story of minorities who fled to India due to religious persecution in Pakistan had a virtual premiere in the US.

An initiative of IndicDialogue, the documentary is directed by Manavendra Singh Shekhawat and produced by Nikhil Singh Rajput.

The virtual premiere was attended by prominent personalities from 35 cities across the US, Europe, India and Singapore, according to a media release.

In his remarks on the occasion, renowned actor Anupam Kher, whose own community was forcefully driven out of their homes in Kashmir Valley, shared the pains of these refugees and said, ”…to be in a perpetual state of statelessness is the biggest curse that a human being can make some people go through.”

”…when you see the faces of these people, they have agony that the camera captures for that fleeting moment when the director must have said start sound, camera, action, and that must have been 1 or 2 minutes. But what about the other 23 hours, 58 minutes? They are living with that reality. They are living with that pain,” he said.

Producer Rajput said that the story of these refugees was not covered in the media the way he saw it.

”Nobody really talked to the actual victims. I saw that gap. I was intrigued and thought we should hear their story from their mouths. We are just showing you why they left, no refugee group in the world leaves on their own accord. They leave their home country under dire circumstances… This movie is their story,” he said.