‘BAREILLY KI BETI: THE YOUNGEST SURVIVOR’

The ongoing war against new born daughters in India

Directed by- Abhinav Shukla

Produced by Medicine Box Productions.

Staring- Rubina Dilaik, Pranay Dixit and Tanya Abrol

Can India, a country struggling to combat an increasingly impact of female foeticide & female infanticide on the gender balance envision a society where women & their new born baby girls are safe?

‘Bareilly ki Beti: the youngest survivor’ deals with the sensitive issue of female foeticide which is still rampant in India. Still, in today’s advancing age female child is not welcome in this world because of various taboos (Dowry and rape being the most common).

Shot in Bareilly(UP), the film is inspired by a true story of a newborn girl child SITA. Director of the film, Abhinav Shukla has beautiful tried to bring about the message in front of people to create awareness about this sensitive issue in a hope that one day no girl child is denied her right to live.

Elaborating about the film, Abhinav Shukla says “Our Short Film Bareilly Ki Beti is inspired from the incident which occurred in Bareilly, where a couple while digging a grave for their stillborn found a live baby girl buried 2-3 feet down.  She was rushed to the hospital and she survived. The incident was reported world over and was so impactful that I along with Medicine Box Productions wanted to do our bit about it, people read the news and in few days forget and move on hence we decided to fictionalize the incident and show it for more impact and longevity because I as a new writer & director believe that a good film/short film is forever” further adding “Within few days of the incident we reached the real location with partial crew did our Reece research, after 4 days of research we called in the actors and shot the film in a period of 2 days”

Talking about the star cast, Abhinav Shukla says “Rubina Dilaik plays the female protagonist along with Pranay Dixit and Tanya Abrol (Chack De fame) . When I narrated the script to Rubina her reaction was what I was praying for, she loved the screenplay and we were lucky to have an actor of her caliber play the part. For me biggest challenge was to make her look rustic and I guess I managed to do it very well as the viewers will also realise who have always seen Rubina in a non-rustic character. Tanya plays the role of doctor and she has done a great job as well. I had worked with Pranay Dixit in a film who also hails from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. I always wanted to cast him for some of my projects as I believe he is brilliant at his craft of an actor”

A doctor by profession, Producer Yadwinder Singh Grewal calls the concept ‘noble & thought provoking‘, “Enough is enough. We as responsible citizens of the country should contribute to eradicate such atrocities against women from female foeticide, female infanticide, rapes, molestation and what better way than power of entertainment & media. As much as I am honored to be a part of this project, it breaks my heart that  Bareilly ki Beti: the youngest survivor is inspired by a real incident. I hope this film brings a change in the mindset of people”