December 16, 2017
Actress Neetu Chandra who became a producer with films like
"Deswa" and "Mithila Makhaan" said she wants to make Bhojpuri films to clean the
image of her mother tongue.
Asked why she wants to produce Bhojpuri films
despite doing content-driven Hindi films, Neetu said: "I come from Bihar where
Bhojpuri films are seen as soft porn, cheap, double meaning films.
"The
moment you hear Bhojpuri, you don't want to be associated with it. They
(Bhojpuri films) are looked down upon and rightfully so... There are reasons. I
refuse to accept that this is the cinema of my mother tongue.
"That's
where I and my brother Nitin, who had all the achievements and education to do
Hindi cinema, chose to do Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi films. We wanted to do
films to clean the image of our mother tongue which has been maligned," said
Neetu.
"It has nothing to do with business, it's like they say 'if you
want change, you have to be the change'."
With brother Nitin Chandra who
is a National Award winning director, Neetu runs a Production House called
Champaran Talkies.
The house produces Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi films
along with other content for their platform NeoBihar.
Asked whether she
would prefer to produce regional content films or commercial Hindi films, the
"Garam Masala" actress said: "I think content-driven films with a commercial
angle is what should be done."
Talking about her first production
"Deswa", Chandra said: "'Deswa' became a very big film for Bhojpuri and very
small for Hindi cinema. The Bhojpuri industry mafia did not let us release it.
So finally we came up with a platform NeoBihar where we will release the film
and work on different content-based videos."
"Deswa" will be released on
December 23 on NeoBihar YouTube Channel of Champaran Talkies.