Cup of info

Indian Express

Ranjani Raghavan

Posted: Sunday , Apr 25, 2010 at 2305 hrs

Indian Express Marathi film Ek Cup Chya tells story of a bus conductor who takes on authorities with the help of the RTI Act

Ek Cup Chya, a Marathi film screened by a group of activists in Andheri on Wednesday, had a unique subject — the Right to Information Act that gives the commonman the privilege to access government records. Made by national award winning directors, Sumithra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar, and produced by Yeshwant Oak, it tells the story of a bus conductor from Konkan who uses the Act to question authorities after he gets an inflated electricity bill.

The film, which has made it to several international film festivals, is now in the race for the Maharashtra State Film Awards, to be announced later this month.

“After watching the film, an autorickshaw driver told us that he too had applied for information under the RTI Act. Even he had the same problem, an inflated electricity bill,” says Sumithra Bhave. “Viewers’ reactions have been extremely satisfactory so far. Many people in India and abroad told us that they liked the film very much.”

Over the last 20 years, Bhave and her co-director Sukthankar have made 10 feature films and several short films. They have won three international awards, six national awards, more than 45 state awards and several other film awards, including the Aravindan Puraskaram.

“Bhave who was a researcher wanted to give a feedback to her respondents, mostly Dalit women. Since writing to them was not an option, she decided to make a film. We were college students then and I decided to help her. The film Bai won a national award. Since then, we have been making films on socially relevant subjects,” says Sukthankar.

“The KS Wani Memorial Trust urged us to make a film on RTI. We had made a national award winning film Devrai in 2004 for the Trust... The beauty of this Act lies with a commonman picking up a pen and asking for information.”

Oak says the title Ek Cup Chya is an allusion to corruption in the government. “Chai paani has come to be synonymous with corruption.”

Oak’s Schizophrenia Awareness Association in Pune and the KS Wani Memorial Trust have spent Rs 62 lakh to make the film, but till now the returns have been negligible. “That may be because we did not promote the film in a big way. However, it has been very popular in the international film circuit. We have been able to successfully show how the RTI can help us solve small problems.”

After his retirement nearly two decades ago, Oak has been working on awareness on Schizophrenia in Pune. “Filmmaking is a way to spread message and vision.”

Ek Cup Chya will be screened at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research at 6 pm on April 28.