I was called to shoot 'CheerHaran', a documentary based on the Jat reservation agitation which turned into the riots that took place a month before we went there. Haryana was completely broken. Markets, shops and houses were burnt down in many places claiming the lives of 32 people. The shocking stories we heard were no less than a nightmare, including a man merely passing by who was hit by a military bullet. It was hard to talk to their wives, fathers and mothers. Emotions were very extreme.
Our director, Mr Kuldeep Ruhil, who originally belonged to Haryana was emotionally drained. He started this project because he was so heartbroken after the riots, and because of the way the media presented the image of Haryana to the world. It was very important for him to document and present it to the entire world, so that such incidents don’t happen again.
This documentary was mainly concentrated in two sections - 'How did this riots happen?' and 'What did Haryana loose from it?'.
The first section was very easy and straight forward. We were interviewing every possible witness, and also historians, politicians, Jaat organisation leaders, etc. Everyone was presenting their point of view and their experiences, and we recreated some of the interesting ones. Like when the riots were happening, rumours were floating around in the Jat colony that the neighbouring Saini colony is coming in a gang to kill them. And the way this Jat colony, which even had 2 Saini houses, got together with everything they had, and were ready for a fight, even late at night. Same rumours were also floating in the Saini locality about a Jat gang coming to kill them.
The later section about 'what did Haryana loose?', was mainly about 30 odd deaths, and we were interviewing every family who lost one of their own. I believe, for a director its the hardest play. The fact that sometimes you have to convince the family to face a camera to answer questions about the death of your loved ones is quite the challenge. It used to be emotionally challenging for me as well. Because some people didn't want to face the camera, and most people didn't want to face it while crying. And I had to find ways to secretly roll the camera in such situations. This is because when you shoot documentaries, real emotions are priceless. It’s true that sometimes in the moment you are cheating the person whom you capture but it is ultimately for the greater good.
The most shocking and surprising story for me was about the rumour that spread across the world, that many girls were being raped in Haryana during the Jaat Reservation Riots. Some news channel even went on to do a fake interview of a truck driver, who told that he had witnessed a gang rape. The driver was later called in the courtroom, and when questioned, he confessed that he was told by the channel to say it in front of the camera for 10,000 Rupees.
Making a good documentary is a far bigger process than making a fiction. We had to go back to Haryana at least 4 more times to capture the few things that we missed. And along the editing of the film by our star editor Praveen Angre on the edit table, a few more shoot schedules were also planned. It took more than a year for this documentary to be finally ready. And for that I give a big salute to the dedication of our director Kuldeep Ruhil. But little did he know that completing this film was just the first step, while getting the censor certificate would be another battle altogether.
During the censor screening, the censor board denied to give this documentary a censor certificate, as they thought this film might provoke and start the riots again. They asked to bring a NOC from the Haryana government. Funny thing was that this film was actually made for the people to understand the pain and loss of the riots. However, the Haryana government refused to give us the NOC, and so the producer had to take the film in court. And after many prolonged dates and hearings the court finally gave its verdict in producers favor.
So whenever you get chance to watch this documentary, please do. Read more about CheerHaran on http://www.twisterfilms.in/cheerharan.
Mohit Kakodkar
Director of Photography
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