Raj Kundra opens up about his days in Arthur Road jail, reason behind making UT69: ‘Shilpa and I thought if there was even an ounce of truth…’

Talking about how UT 69 is a satirical comedy based on true events in his life, Raj said, “When you bring a British citizen to the jail, everything becomes funny — the way you’re given your food, watered down dal, the place to stay, it was tough. Even when I was writing it, I was wondering how did we reach here.”

Sharing his experiences in jail, Raj said that while the film gives glimpses of his time inside the jail, it also tries to flag human rights issues. “When you send your film to the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) for censorship and call it ‘based on a true story’, they ask for a lot of supporting evidence. We have given it, so many people who were inside (the jail), helped us, given their testaments. Human rights (organisations) have rated the jails, they’ve seen what the situation is like inside the jail. So, the reason to tell this story is because jails are not like how we think they are, or are in the US or shown in Hollywood. We have shown the jail as a dark grungy place, honestly it is a horrible place, but it was what it was, I laughed and cut time there. There are real people inside, Arthur Road is not a jail, it is like a detention centre where you are sent just so that no one can tamper with witness statements and police can carry out their questioning. You come out of there and then face your trial. In a detention centre, they treat you worse than criminals, you are just accused, so that I didn’t like but now our message is loud and clear that definitely reforms are needed.”

 

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Raj also shared that during his time in jail, he made friends with some inmates who were “decent” to talk to. He said, “You become a kind of dysfunctional family. The man who was sleeping to my right was accused of 88 murders, and the one sleeping to my left was accused to child rape. There were quite creepy people around, but I was given a couple of jawabdars (influential inmates appointed by the jail authorities to take care of the barrack) who would keep an eye on me. I was told not to talk to anyone there and nobody will talk to me. I felt I would be out in a week or so, so it wouldn’t be a big deal, I had not imagined that I would end up being there for 63 days. I made friends there with a couple of people who I thought were decent. When you stay with someone for 60 days, you become connected. When you see the film you’ll understand the bonds and the relationships that we made together. I made some friends inside, they are also stuck in various cases.”

When asked if he met any known faces in the jail, Raj shared that actor Ajaz Khan, who was embroiled in a drug case, was put up in the barrack opposite to him. He said, “Ajaz was in the barrack opposite to me. We used to share biscuits and water, we used to help each other a lot, he was very sweet. I didn’t meet anyone else after that.”

Besides starring in the film, he has also written it and filmmaker Shahnawaz Ali has directed it. UT69 is scheduled to release in theatres on November 3.