Reel-time stories

Kumar will do so through a documentary film titled ‘ Sun Aye Yuva ’ (Listen Oh Youth) that will in which he himself will be acting. “The film is a 45 minute documentary and we will begin shooting soon. It will feature my own life story,of how I began using drugs,and graduated to becoming a convict,and wasted my life for a long time before finding a way out of all of it and rehabilitating myself,” he says. The film will also feature interviews from doctors,police personnel,and even Bollywood actors,and will focus on his life as a drug addict and then a criminal.

Kumar also says that it was his days at the Yerwada Jail that showed him the fallacy of the choices he had made in life. “When in jail in the year 2003 I found that I had made a mess of a good part of my life. However I managed to get over my addiction and that gave me a reason to eke out a better and honest way of living,” he says. Post coming out of jail,he was helped by the Prison Fellowship of Maharashtra,to begin a normal way of life.

Deepak Kumar,founder-director of the Fellowship says,“For the last 28 years we have been working towards rehabilitating prisoners from the state so that they can either obtain respectable jobs once they come out of the jails,or learn some useful trade to support themselves. Through this film we will be showing the plight and the hazards of doing drugs to over 24000 prisoners from the 40 jails across Maharashtra.”

The film will also be shown at schools,colleges and call centres. “The whole idea behind the exercise is to show the youngsters of today,what wrongs can come from making one bad decision. And what better way to tell the story,than a person who himself has seen the hazards and found a hard way out of all of it,” says Jerry Shimone,who works as a counselor for the organisation,and is helping Kumar with the making of the film.

“While we intent to begin shooting for the film as soon as possible,we are stuck as of now,as we need to garner Rs 2.5 Lakhs to make the film. as soon as the initial funds start flowing in from people who wish to donate for the cause we will begin work on the film,” says Kumar.

(Those who wish to donate money for the film can contact Kumar at aradna_79@yahoo.com or prabhat-kr@ymail.com)