Rakesh Sharma is a prominent Indian documentary film-maker. 46-year-old Sharma is based in Goa. His famous work is the feature-length documentary Final Solution (Gujarat Riots) on the communal Gujarat riots of 2002. This film was rejected as an entry at the Mumbai International Film Festival in 2004 due to objections by the Censor Board of India, but went on to win two awards at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival (2004).[1] The film was the first Indian film to be awarded the Wolfgang Staudte Award, and it also won the Special Jury Award at the festival.[2]
The film was banned (denied certification) by the Indian Censor Board in July 2004, but following a spate of protests by civil society, the same censors cleared the film without a single cut in Oct 2004. Later, the same film went onto win the President's Indian National Film Award. Final Solution also won the prestigious Apsara award as well as over 20 international awards. The film has been shown on BBC's Storyville, YLE, NHK, DR2 and assorted European stations. It is yet to be screened in India on any private or government television channel.
Indian filmmaker Rakesh Sharma made waves with Final Solution (Gujarat Riots), a hard-hitting analysis of the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom orchestrated by right-wing Hindu nationalists in Gujarat. Sharma viewed the events as a turning point in Indian history: “I wanted it (the film) to be more than a record of grief and tragedy,” says Sharma, “and to look at the political conditions behind it.” Himself a Hindu, Sharma used primary sources — testimony from both victims and perpetrators — to reveal state complicity in the violence. When the film was banned, he mounted an ingenious viral distribution campaign, urging supporters to “pirate and circulate.” It went on to win a Special Jury Award in Berlin. “I find it difficult to remain “just” a filmmaker. I want to hold up the film as a mirror and ask, ‘Is this really what you want to support?’” This impulse to explore critical public issues runs through much of his work.
Rakesh Sharma's earlier film is the multiple award winning film Aftershocks: The Rough Guide to Democracy, a subaltern re-examination of the Narmada debate (Development at whose cost? For whose benefit?). Set in Kutch's lignite mining belt, the film probes democracy 'from below'.
His new set of films probing politics of hate are awaited in 2011; the series is apparently titled Interrogating Hate and has 4-5 parts dealing with Kandhamal, Mangalore, Mumbai terror attack, Malegaon and Gujarat.
Interview with Rakesh Sharma