Oscar nominated documentary 'To Kill a Tiger' on Jharkhand rape victim lands on Netflix
A day before the Academy Awards, a documentary by India born Nisha Pahuja on a father's fight for justice for his 13-year-old daughter in Jharkhand village, starts streaming on Netflix
'To Kill a Tiger’, a documentary that follows a courageous father’s struggle to get justice for his 13-year-old daughter who was sexually assaulted by three men, makes its OTT debut on Netflix, a day before the Academy Awards.
This film set in a small Indian village in Jharkhand is nominated for the best documentary feature at the 96th Academy Awards.
'To Kill a Tiger' is directed by Delhi born Nisha Pahuja, who is currently based in Toronto.
Battle for justice
The film starts off with Ranjit, who finds that his 13-year-old daughter has not returned from a family wedding. After a few hours, she stumbles home and he learns that she was abducted into the woods and sexually assaulted by three men. Ranjit files a police complaint, and the men are arrested.
But Ranjit’s relief is short-lived, as the villagers and their leaders launch a sustained campaign to force the family to drop the charges.
'To Kill a Tiger' follows Ranjit’s uphill battle to find justice for his child. In India, where a rape is reported every 20 minutes and conviction rates are less than 30 per cent, Ranjit’s decision to take up his daughter’s case is rare, says the website on the documentary. It is a story about the emotional journey of an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances.
Ranjit tells the film crew early on that other villagers suggested marrying his daughter off to one of her rapists (there are three) since she has already brought shame to the family.
The film has been directed by Toronto-based Nisha Pahuja. Earlier, she had won an Emmy nomination for her documentary, 'The World Before Her', on the conflicting environment in which Indian girls grow up in. The executive producers of this documentary include Priyanka Chopra, Dev Patel and Mindy Kaling, along with the National Film Board of Canada.
The documentary had its world premiere at TIFF, where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Since then, it’s won 19 awards including Best Documentary Feature, Palm Springs International Film Festival and three Canadian Screen awards.
On the film landing on Netflix, Pahuja said in a statement: “It’s been a long, fascinating 9 year journey with To Kill a Tiger and to be here at this juncture–to announce we’re releasing globally on Netflix on March 10th, Oscar Sunday, we simply couldn’t have asked for anything better."
