Rang de Basanti is an Indian movie was released in 2006 and globally it was released on 26 January 2006, the republic day of India. It was written and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The film is about British documentary. A British filmmaker came to Indian named sue to make a documentary on Indian freedom fighters which was based on her grandfather diary who was a former officer of the British Indian Army. A British filmmaker Sue arrives to India with the help of her Indian friend Sonia.
They both start working on documentary and took auditions to select characters for the documentary but they were all unsuccessful. At the then Sue finally cast Sonia’s friends to portray the revolutionaries. First those four friends of Sonia; Daljit “DJ ?, Karan Singhania, Aslam Khan, and Sukhi Ram refuse to do acting in a film but later Sue successfully manages to convince them all and later a political party activist Laxman Paney joins the cast. They started acting on the film and realizing that their own lives are quite similar to the characters they portray in Sue’s film.
While film was in the process Ajay Singh Rathod, flight lieutenant in the Indian Air Force who is Sonia’s fiancA© was killed in jet crashes. Sonia, Ajays’ mother and his entire friend started protest and ask for the freedom. They hold a candlelight rally at India Gate. The peaceful rally is cruelly disrupted by the paid off police. The friends forget about their lives and take matters into their own hands. They hijack the headquarters off All India Radio to broadcast the truth about their pilot friend and the shocking truth about India’s Defence Minister Murder.
This act cost them their lives but this act encourages whole youth around the country, freedom fighter were being salute by whole nation. After the death of Freedom Fighters, youth across the nation stands for freedom and change in their country and system. Youth took a step forward stands and start holding rallies against corruption in the country and how they killed those freedom fighters, they start doing protest and talking against country’s system and they stand for a change. After the release of Rang De Basanti, it had a huge impact on Indian society.
Youth motivated by the message of Rang De Basanti took to the streets and other public places to protest on public interest issues. The biggest, direct and most prominent impact of Rang De Basanti was on the Jessica Lall and Priyadarshini Matoo murder case. The Jesica Lall was a model an shot dead on 29th of April 1999 at a sociealite party in New Delhi in front of about three hundred of india’s most prominent people by Manu Sharma, the son of an Indian Minister. Manu Sharma was acquitting on 21st February 2006, exactly after one month of Rang De Basanti release.
After Manu Sharma’s acquittal india’s most rigorous public protest took place and media campaigns started which demanded that he should be re-arrested. Text messages campaign and campaign on internet started which demand Jessica Lall justice. This mood to secure justice and bring about a change also instigated student protestors into holding a candlelight rally at Inda Gate which was directly inspires from the scene of Rang De Basanti where student organize a candlelight rally at India Gte to protest the death of Ajay.
After the protests, campaigns and rallies Jessica Lall got justice, Delhi High Court Manu Sharma guily of murdering Lall. After the Jessica Lall case another high profile murder case came into spotlight with the help of public activism. Priyadarshini, a 22 year old law student was raped and murdered in her home during the January of 1996. The victim of this case was acquitted by a trail court in 199 sue to lack evidence but after the release of Rang de Basanti this case also got new lease of life in 2006 due to wide spread media attention, peace rallies and public protest from students in India.
Us and across the world. And successfully on 17th of October 2006, the court sentenced victim to death. After watching both cases Rang De Basanti helped shape public policy and encourages youth to stand for their right, freedom and change in system. Rang de Basanti inspired nation and youth activism was started all over the country and worldwide. Rang De Basanti resulted in an expansion of the public sphere. It has wide impact on Indian audience.
