Ahmedabad, Oct. 20: A documentary Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail directed by Subhradeep Chakravarty was screened on Monday here by New Stream media agency.
The documentary featured incidents including the Ram temple movement featuring the rathyatra of the BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani in 1989 followed by demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 and events that followed thereafter leading to Godhra train massacre.
The investigative documentary involved statements of several witnesses, police officials, survivors, political leaders and legal experts. The 62-minute documentary also incorporates interviews and views of Dr Praveen Togadia, international general secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad; Vinay Katiyar, BJP president in Uttar Pradesh and Dr Jaydeep Patel, general secretary of Gujarat VHP and karsevaks who presented their version of the incident.
Subhradeep Chakravarty speaking to media persons said, "I have tried to reconstruct the whole incident and have incorporated the terror unleashed by the karsevaks during the journey. It also includes interviews of the passengers who booked their tickets in the S-6 coach and victims of the incident."
The documentary maker plans to screen the documentary in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. He aims to inform the people about the actual incident, which happened on February 27 in 2002.
As soon as the screening of the documentary was over, the leaders of the city VHP unit interrupted the proceeding. Shouting slogans of "Jai Shri Ram", supporters of VHP warned the media not to popularise the screening about the documentary which is trying to malign the status and disrupt peace in the state. They argued with the director about the screening of the documentary and warned him about dire consequences.
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VHP activists heckle Godhra filmmaker (Times of India, OCT20)
AHMEDABAD: Delhi-based filmmaker, Shubradeep Chakravorty, was heckled by alleged VHP supporters at the venue of the screening on Monday afternoon.
Shubradeep was here for a press-screening of his film Godhra Tak. The film is based on the Godhra train carnage.
The screening had already been shifted from its scheduled venue at a city hotel citing 'political pressures' to the more inconspicuous 'Khet Bhavan' near the Gandhi Ashram.
The 62-minute documentary which has been screened at the Film South Asia festival in Kathmandu recently, is claimed to be an investigative film on the Godhra carnage and concludes with a defence against the alleged conspiracy theory.
Even as the film was being screened on the first floor of Khet Bhavan, some 10 persons waited downstairs and said, "what is all this when there is peace in Gujarat". Later, when the screening was done with, they marched into the room during the press conference and heckled Chakravorty.
They insisted that he say 'sorry' for what he had done which they alleged could 'disrupt peace in Gujarat'.
When Chakravorty tried saying that his film had interviews of VHP leader Jaideep Patel, the miscreants dialled a number and appeared to talk to Patel. They even forced Chakravorty to speak to the person at the other end of the line.
Chakravorty, who is a former journalist told reporters that this was his first independent venture in film-making and said 'he had tried to make a balanced film and give the right information to the public'.
Asked why he chose the subject, Chakravorty said, "I thought the official version on the carnage was rubbish".
The film has interviews of international general secretary Pravin Togadia, Jaideep Patel, BJP MP Vinay Katiyar, the survivors of the S-6 coach, victims allegedly assaulted at Rudauli in UP by kar sevaks in the same trip of the Sabarmati express on its journey to Ahmedabad, and comments by former director of Central Forensic Science Laboratory V N Sehgal.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=243440 *******
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