FROM HUMAN RIGHTS MOVIE TO HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

I was just reading some old posts of mine and felt compelled to update my readers on the latest on several issues I had raised.

First of all "Naa Bangaaru Talli"(my dearest daughter) our telugu film on sex trafficking was released in November 2014. It is truly an honor and pride to declare that we released the film by crowd-funding, a first of its kind in the Tollywood industry. It is also an indication of the extraordinary love and support we have received from our friends and well-wishers from all over the world. 546 donors from across the world donated 35 lakhs which was used to release the film in 40 theaters in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana. Here I need to also express my heartfelt gratitude to milap.org and Reliance Entertainment. Milap for facilitating the crowd funding and Reliance for being my release partner. And Sanjay Maswan thank you so much for connecting me to Milap.

Some other people like Mega star Chiranjeevi and actress Samantha Prabhu raised the bar of visibility of the film to such heights that was completely unimaginable to me or Rajesh. MAA TV came to our rescue thanks to Amala Akkineni who entered our lives as an angel to tangibly show us the conspiracy of Universe. She sowed the seed of crowd funding in my head, she also pushed the top honchos of MAA TV to watch the movie which ended in the satellite rights being sold. So some revenue raised.

If I do not mention the support of my friend Kannan and his team at Mentorware, I will be committing a  gross injustice. This is a friendship of unconditional love, and everyday from the day they came into my life,I have thanked God for the beauty and generosity of universe.

Well the movie created history of sorts, it was the first telugu film in the last 23 years to get 3 national awards. It also won 5 international awards. But the real award was when the movie ran in packed theaters in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana for 6 weeks. As the number of theaters were less it cannot be called a commercial success as we did not recover our money. But what we got, money cannot buy!

For those who missed the film please watch it on 8th March on MAA TV. I will definitely ensure that the movie will reach the remotest part of telugu speaking communities by this year end.

From movies to human rights. Many of my blogs in the last many months have spoken about the attacks we were facing. As a Human Rights Defender it always bothered me that the society at large did not really value good work. It was easy for them to chase a grease painted reel hero to a real hero fighting injustices in the society. I got an opportunity to vent out my feelings as a speaker at the National Human Rights Commission workshop for Human Rights Defenders. I recommended the following:

1. A national declaration on Human Rights Defenders by National Human Rights Commission(NHRC), acknowledging and valuing their work.
2.A First Response Mechanism within NHRC to swiftly respond to Human Rights Defenders when they are in danger, witch-hunted or are in situation where solidarity by a credible National Human Rights Body is the need of the hour.
3. "Assault Alarm" a technology driven wrist band that will through GPS tracking send distress signals to public through social media and other mechanism when there is a physical threat to a life of a Human Rights Defender.
4. Human Rights Defenders Day to celebrate the work of unsung defenders and also acknowledge their vulnerabilities.
5. Nurturing and building the capacities of Human Rights Defenders on Secure Communication, Physical safety, Digital safety etc
6. Emergency Fund within NHRC to support Human Rights Defenders who need medical support, relocation support.
Barring the first one all other recommendations reflected in the final recommendations.

Well with #ShameTheRapistCampaign and all other interventions I am already involved with I feel the need to constantly update and ensure the right information is with you regarding what  I am doing in my own words. 
Living for the moment and loving every second of it, I cherish the fact that I am investing my life the right way.