Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday watched a Maithili language film, Jackson Halt, directed and produced by National Award-winning brother-sister duo Nitin Chandra Shrivastava and Neetu Chandra Shrivastava, respectively.
Mr. Yadav, along with the entire team that made the film, watched it at the Conplex Smart Theatre on at S.P. Verma Road here late on Thursday evening.
While speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Chandra, who has come out with her second film in Maithili after Mithila Makhaan, said she wanted to create opportunities for employment in the State through the movie.
Mithila Makhaan bagged the National Award for the Best Maithili film in 2017. It is the first film from Bihar and Jharkhand to receive a National Award.
“The motive behind producing the film in Maithili language is giving a proper platform to the languages spoken in Bihar and through it, also to generate employment. The entire shooting of the film has taken place in Madhubani district of Bihar. Around 300 people were given employment during the shoot which lasted for four months. If one local film can generate employment for so many people, then just imagine what will happen if [films in] more local languages are directed,” Ms. Chandra said..
“If people can watch movies in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and more languages, then why not Maithili,” she asked.
Ms. Chandra has been involved in several Bollywood films, and a Hollywood production, Never Back Down: Revolt. Her Jakson Halt will be released on May 5 and will be available on Champaran Talkies’ OTT platform Bejod, which she owns.
Mr. Nitin Chandra, who put in considerable effort in the making of this film, said the idea behind directing a film in Maithili was to make the point that a movie made in a local language “can also do miracles”.
“We always talk about Bihari pride and culture but how many people are really taking the initiative to preserve our culture and language? Someone has to take the initiative so I and Neetu decided to go ahead with this idea and give the opportunity to the Bihari actors in this film. I have seen how people of Bihar struggle in other States for jobs and livelihood. We are happy that we are also creating job opportunities in Bihar by shooting in our own State,” Mr. Chandra said.
The couple’s first jointly made production was the Bhojpuri film Deshwa in 2011, followed by Mithila Makhaan, and now Jackson Halt. They are also planning a film in Magahi, a language spoken in eight districts of Bihar and seven districts of Jharkhand.
Praising the effort after watching the film, Mr. Yadav said, “More such films should be made so that Bihar’s culture could be preserved and also youths of Bihar can get employment apart from increasing the awareness on local language.” He added that the brother-sister duo had always made Bihar feel proud, and they had “once again come up with an excellent idea to promote Bihar’s local language”.
