A movie for a cause is a common phenomenon but creating a film based on the existing gamble of life that the indie dogs are subjected to is rare. The Indian pariah, as the stray indies or native dogs of our country are called, are often doomed to suffer at the hands of people and become victims of abuse. There aren’t too many people who willingly adopt indies in the country... in turn, they are shooed off, thrown away, beaten up and the incidents of animal abuse incessantly increase with the hour. Team Pariah (who are compassionate towards animals) launched its power-packed trailer at Park Street Social with Jeet in attendance as a special guest. Pariah, directed by Tathagata Mukherjee, stars Vikram Chatterjee, Angana Roy, Sreelekha Mitra, Ambarish Bhattacharya, Soumya Mukherjee, Tapati Munsi, Debashish Roy, Loknath Dey, Debaprasad Halder, Bimal Giri, and Sahir Raj.
The trailer left us in awe with its strong message against those ignorant about animal rights. The power hierarchy of society where the weaker section is dominated is an occurrence between the human-stray relationship as well. Pariah wants to break the norm and inspire people to stand up for animals as they don’t have the voice to do it! “The law is not strong or staunch enough to punish those who abuse the voiceless. So, I took a chance with the film to express the angst in a way I won’t be able to in real life. I breathed what goes on inside my head and what I want to do to those who hurt animals into Vikram’s character because I can’t take the law in my hands and punish them in real life. I used the creative medium to instil fear among people who think there’s no one to stand up for the animals,” said Tathagata.
Sreelekha Mitra. Sourced by The Telegraph
The trailer, where Vikram is seen in action (starkly different from the romantic heroes he’s played in his career) fighting with blood smeared across his body, has a uniqueness to it. The plan is to release three volumes of the film, Pariah being the first that was co-written by Tathagata and Antara Banerjee, the second will expand the subject matter from dogs to other animals as well, and talks of the third volume are still on.
Shot with 70 dogs, the four-legged friends were all from the director’s acquaintances and some were from the streets. The untrained pariahs received star treatment. “It was their shot that was taken first and if the need arose we had to wait and it was never a problem. There was a one-month-old puppy and I feel he was the best actor among everyone. His eyes were so expressive. Whenever he entered the set, we did all his shots first and released him the earliest, ” said Vikram.
Tathagata Mukherjee. Sourced by The Telegraph
“The roots of the term ‘pariah’ used for the indies are still not known, but long ago, the ones who worked at the tannery were called so by the upper-class Hindus in Southern parts of India. They were treated like untouchables and the inheritance of the word and its association with indies come from there. Much like the pariahs in the South who faced discrimination, the not-so-foreign breed is discriminated against as well,” said the director, who has been working for street animals for more than a decade now. “There’s no proper law. If you kill a dog or a cat the punishment is minimal and the crime is heinous. It’s something I’ve faced a lot, and when I went to the police station with the culprit who was responsible for the crime, they were eventually acquitted and proper justice wasn’t meted out. There’s always an affinity towards the occident and it reflects in the way people treat animals as well. Breed maney bhalo, breed na hole kharap! So I’ve tried to address these issues in the film,” he added.
Vikram went through a physical and mental transformation. “I had to be at par with what the director had in mind and that required some hardwork. I’ve grown up in a family where both my mother and sister have been taking care of dogs for more than 20 years. I have four dogs and two of them are pariahs. The oldest rescued lab was about to be put down because she was ill. But we decided to adopt her and I’m thankful because she is the sweetest soul. I have seen both my mother and sister face several difficulties while feeding dogs, arranging medications for them and helping them live a peaceful life,” said Vikram.
Angana Roy plays Kamalini, a character who can sacrifice her own life for dogs. She’s simple, independent and she stands up for animals. “I have been brought up with a lot of dogs around. I had a pet named Chomchom but after his passing, I’ve been quite sad. I try my best to feed the strays on the street and do my part for them,” she said.
Kamalini’s dog in the film didn’t like to be petted. “I had to rehearse a lot because I was supposed to cuddle him and grow affectionate. Navigating his comfort was a challenge. There was a dog without one leg and the lady taking care of him was so kind... that’s what she does, contributes and works for animals who are physically disabled,” she said.
Speaking about the way he prepared to build his body for the role Vikram said: “Almost all actors in the industry have to work on their body and we’ve seen a lot of them do it. This is a passion project and a challenging one as well because it is starkly different from the roles I’ve played before. It was a lot of hard work and the discipline you need for such a process is unimaginable and I had to turn down some other work because of this. There was a phase when I was 88kgs because you need to bulk up first, so shooting for other films wasn’t possible as it was 23kgs more than what I normally weigh. However, giving up on other projects wasn’t a regret because Pariah as a film is very close to my heart.”
Sreelekha echoed the same sentiment. “Pariah is a film that’s close to my heart. There’s been a very strange concept about indies, they’re wrongfully equated with dirt, and viruses. The mentality is so deep-seated that I have witnessed people harm puppies. They threatened to throw them out of my housing complex and honestly, when you’re surrounded by so many like-minded people who are against you and animals, you will be intimidated. However, I found myself gathering courage and standing against them all and soon realised that I had become an animal activist,” said Sreelekha.
Soumyo Mukherjee, who plays the brutal antagonist in Pariah, said: “I love animals. But as an actor, I have to explore several layers of the human psyche. At the end of the day, one can hate the character I’m playing, but you cannot ignore the way his mind works.”
A jarring message has become the need of the hour. “This film is very personal to me. It’s my personal vengeance. The character played by Vikram... his violence in the film is exactly what I would do if I got the chance to avenge the people who’ve harmed animals,” said Tathagata. “At the military academy in Barrackpore, an indie has been added and it’s showcasing immense intelligence. The crew members who were scared of dogs, have become dog lovers in the process of the shoot and rehearsals,” he signed off.