Urvi looks at the grim reality of brothels

More often than not, when prostitution is a subject or part of a narrative of a film, it is often to provide the necessary ‘masala’ and titillate audiences. But once in a while, there comes along a film that attempts to look at the grim reality of one of the largest ‘industries’, the key players of which are often not willing participants and endure years of hardship.Debutant director BS Pradeep Varma’s release today, produced by Airier Drreams, is one such, which, even in the absence of vulgarity, has been cleared for adult consumption only, because of the subject it deals with.
Undeterred, he is excited about the release and anxious to know what audiences think of his take on the exploitation of women in the sex industry. The film stars Sruthi Hariharan, Shraddha Srinath and Shwetha Pandit in the lead, along with Achyuth Kumar and Bhavani Prakash. This film, incidentally, was not meant to be the director’s debut.
“In 2003 and 2004, I was in Kolkata with my Russian documentary-maker friend Gustav, whom I had met at a mela at the Chitrakala Parishat, when we met this girl called Chandrika, a reformed commercial sex worker, who was then working with an NGO that aimed to empower and free girls from the red streets. She is the inspiration behind the script I wrote, which I had initially conceptualized as Gulaabi Street. It struck me that most of the girls trapped in this industry, are young and naïve, abducted from some remote part of the country or neighbouring countries and then sold into the trade,” says Pradeep.
“They have no choice and continue to suffer there, as they are unsure what fate awaits them if they attempt to run away. What if it is worse than what they are currently in? They have no hope for a better tomorrow. Initially, I wanted to make a documentary about it, but I ended up writing a story that was more powerful and striking,” says Pradeep, adding that the documentary Born into Brothels was equally inspiring.
His eventual script was so long, that Pradeep thought he needed to make it in two parts. While he announced the first part, Gulaabi Street, some time ago, the filmmaker claims that he ran into creative differences with other team members and had to shelve it. He then reworked his conclusion into a full-fledged script, added a character aptly named Asha (played by Sruthi Hariharan) to be the light at the end of the tunnel (inspired from the shloka Thamasoma Jyothirgamaya) for his other lead characters and that’s how Urvi came to be.
The film, he says, is his attempt at providing a voice to the voiceless ones in a brothel and to shed light on their hard lives. In doing so, he has also moved away from regular commercial fare and only attempted to tell a story. “This is not a star-driven film. Urvi is about the story, the characters and their raw emotions and feelings. And that is its biggest strength,” he signs off.