To Kill a Tigertakes audiences to a rural village in Jharkhand, where Ranjit, a poor rice farmer, begins working with women’s rights organization the Srijan Foundation in the wake of his 13-year-old daughter’s sexual assault at the hands of three young men.
After they’re arrested and a 14-month trial ensues, “the villagers and their leaders launch a sustained campaign to force the family to drop the charges,” per the film’s synopsis.
“In India, where a rape is reported every 20 minutes and conviction rates are less than 30 percent, Ranjit’s decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of,” it adds.
As the doc’s award-winning writer-director Nisha Pahuja tells PEOPLE,To Kill a Tigerresonates withsurvivors of sexual violenceand, she hopes, men like Ranjit who can stand against it — in India and beyond.
Ranjit’s daughter in “To Kill a Tiger”.ONF/NFB
ONF/NFB
While her name and personal details haven’t been shared out of respect for privacy, the survivor made the decision, Pahuja reveals, to appear uncensored in the film.
“It was always the intent to mask her identity,” Pahuja, 56, recalls. “We asked her and her family how they would feel if we did actually show her. And it was after they watched the film that she said yes.”
“She was so proud of herself, and she didn’t want to be hidden. She wanted to come forward. She wanted people to know who she was, and she wanted to share her story.”
Below, Pahuja tells PEOPLE about working with Kaling and Patel to spread the word about the issues of gender justice and assault, and illuminating Ranjit and his daughter’s story “as a way to heal… for her, and for other survivors of sexual violence.”
To recognize and celebrate theInternational Day of the Girl, PEOPLE has the exclusive trailer forTo Kill a Tiger, which took home top honors at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and over a dozen other festivals, below. It opens in select theaters Oct. 20 and expands wide Oct. 27.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.
PEOPLE: How didTo Kill a Tigeroriginate and develop as a film?
Nisha Pahuja:It took eight years to make the film. A year and a half of research, three and a half years of filming, and then three years of editing. I worked with an incredible team. But actually when I first started making the film, I was making a film on masculinity. I’ve been working on issues of gender as a filmmaker for a number of years and I grew up in this Indian culture, which is a very patriarchal culture. I think I was always trying to understand why there were certain things that I wasn’t allowed to do and why the women around me were treated in particular ways. And you grow up hearing horrific stories. Then, of course, there are all these headlines that are continually coming out of India, and you start to really question why this kind of oppression takes place.
I started to realize at some point the issue is not with women, the issue is with men. What we really have to do, what we really have to understand, if we’re going to have a world where we are truly equal as men and women and people of all genders, we have to really understand masculinity.
So initially, Ranjit’s story was part of this larger film that I was making… [Documentarians] have to be both proactive and reactive at the same time, really open to what life is giving you, and thinking many steps ahead and understanding how this could be part of your story and why. It’s like jazz, it really is.
What drove you to bring this story to the screen throughout all eight years, including now in promoting it? What values or goals guide you forward?
I have two goals with this particular film. One is to encourage other survivors to come forward and demand justice around the world. And the second thing is to encourage men to become allies in the fight for gender equality.
I feel that as women, we’ve been carrying this burden for so many years of fighting for our rights and demanding that we be seen and demanding that we be recognized as equals. And it’s exhausting. Really, the issue is not us. The issue is men. It’s the system that we all operate under, this patriarchal construct. I think until we start to see how those ideas define us and limit all of us, we’re just going to be stuck. So it really means men doing their homework and men standing up for women.
What most surprised you as this story unfolded in real time? What did you learn?
We’re all products of our culture no matter where we are. We think the way we think so much because of the families we come from, the larger society we’re living in, and the time period that we’re living in. I think about women’s rights, even in Canada and the United States — the fact that we weren’t allowed to vote until about 40 or 50 years ago. How we think is not necessarily a reflection of us. It’s so much bigger. It’s so much deeper.
I feel that those boys [on trial for sexual assault] are also a product of the place that they live in. To not understand that means you’re just going to keep perpetuating. You’re not really dealing with the problem. The fundamental problem here is culture. Until you change culture, until you educate, until you actually change hearts and minds, we’re never going to stop any kind of oppression, right? Whether it’s gender, race, sexuality, we’re going to continue to have those issues.
(Left to right:) Ranjit, Amit Singh, Jaganti.ONF/NFB
How and when did Dev Patel and Mindy Kaling come on board as executive producers?
I say this to every [interviewer]: If they didn’t come on board, we wouldn’t be talking.
I brought them on board because I knew I have a film here that so many people have put so much love and effort into, including the family. It’s such an important story, a universal story. It’s galvanizing. Or it has that ability, but I can’t do it. I need people to help me amplify the voices of these people in the film. So through friends, we reached out to Mindy and to Dev’s company. They both watched the film, instantly said, “Yes, sign me up,” and they’ve been amazing. Getting it out on social media, talking to the press, they’re really championing this in a substantial way, and they really believe in it. Because of them, it’s happening.
You mentioned the film’s universality. Why do you think Dev and Mindy signed on to share it with audiences internationally?
There’s not a woman on this planet who has not been afraid of sexual assault or sexual violence. We all carry that fear in our bodies, it’s just there. We live in a world that is not safe for women, and we all feel that and know that. We can all relate to that experience… That’s whatMe Toowas all about. It’s still there.
Statistics are really difficult and nuanced and context is so important. But one of the things that I found really interesting is that rape cases that happen every year in the United States, only 2.5% are reported. And of the ones that are reported, it’s about 8% that lead to conviction.
And in India it’s 30% lead to conviction. So conviction rates are lower in the United States than they are in India. We don’t understand how deep the problem is actually around the world, how under-reported and under-prosecuted the problem is. We think it’s a problem that’s happening overtherebecause of the headlines that come — and they are so horrific, we cannot overlook that. But in terms of the larger statistics around this story of sexual violence against women, it’s shocking.
(Left to right:) “To Kill a Tiger” director of photography Mrinal Desai and director Nisha Pahuja behind the scenes.Dhawalika Singh
Dhawalika Singh
What do you know about the United Nations’ international observance day Oct. 11, the International Day of the Girl?
It’s a recognition and a reminder that girls around the world are oppressed and that we need to stand up. They do not have the same rights or the same attention paid to them in terms of health, education, opportunities. They don’t have role models. We need to provide role models, and we need to actually see the potential in girls. We ignore that, and I think that’s actually to the detriment of our own societies.
To Kill a Tigeris in theaters Oct. 27.
source: people.com
