One of the most powerful and poignant documentary films to tackle rape and abuse of all forms suffered by women in India is set to make its debut at this year’s SCAD Savannah Film Festival.
“Women Of My Billion” – WOMB– is a heart wrenching and heartwarming narrative of the plight, dreams, rights and fight against all forms of violence, that unify the women of today’s India. The documentary also calls for an end to the dowry system, which dehumanizes women by treating them as property.
The film will screen at SCAD, the largest university-run festival in the U.S., which runs from Oct. 23-30. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A session with producer Apoorva Bakshi and executive producer Juliet Blake (TED Talks India, The Hundred-Foot Journey).
A former marketing executive in Hong Kong, Srishti Bakshi became deeply concerned with the atrocities and violence subjected to women in her native India. Following the Highway 91 rape in 2016 in India, Srishti decided to take action against the rising crime against women in her country. With the support of the President of India, she embarked on a 3800 km (2,361 miles) foot journey from Kanyakumari (South India) to Kashmir (North India) over 230 days in a heroic effort to create awareness on women’s safety and empowerment through financial and digital literacy.
An Awedacious Original, WOMB, directed by Ajitesh Sharma highlights the monumental journey through Srishti’s lens, her interaction with over 85,000 women over more than 100 workshops that she conducted in schools, villages and institutions on her on-foot journey.
“In this documentary we have celebrated ordinary women who’ve shown extraordinary courage to rise above their limitations and challenges perpetuated by the deeply entrenched gender norms. We did this to unite the majority because we discovered that gender-based violence is a crime perpetrated by the minority but perpetuated by the silence of the majority,” says Srishti, Empower Women Champion for Change 2016-2017 by UN Women.
As Srishti embarked on her journey, her sister Apoorva Bakshi , the lead Executive Producer on Delhi Crime which later won the Global Emmy for Best Drama Series on Netflix was addressing the same issues. The worldwide attention generated by the series was enough for the sisters to team up on the WOMB documentary in effort to continue the momentum of unifying women of today’s India.
Apoorva Bakshi added: “Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation. And since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the world locking down to live within four walls, emerging data and reports from those on the front lines, have shown that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has only intensified. With WOMB, we aim to bring forth inspiring stories of fight and survival which Srishti was privy to by meeting brave women on her walk. Our objective is to pass on this privilege of knowing these women and their stories to inspire conversations on how gender norms need to be overhauled.” At Awedacious Originals, we believe in collaborating with fearless film makers and supporting urgent and mission driven stories that have the ability to move, inform, stop you in your tracks, make you think or feel more deeply and ‘WOMB’ is a true example of such impactful storytelling. We look forward to sharing the same with audiences worldwide.”
About Awedacious Originals
Born out of a collective thirst to produce awe-inspiring and audacious stories, founders Apoorva Bakshi, Monisha Thyagarajan and Gururaj Dixit launched Awedacious Originals with offices in California and India. A new era production company which through collaborative partnerships with fearless filmmakers, aims to share bold, unusual and compelling stories with the widest audiences possible, even if that means pushing boundaries and taking risks.
