MUMBAI (Reuters):
A BOLLYWOOD film about a single mother and her young son's struggle to live with HIV/AIDS opened in cinemas across India last week, marking the first foray by the Indian Catholic church into commercial cinema.
The Hindi-language Aisa Kyun Hota Hai (Why Does This Happen?) is made with church money and it is hoped it will spread awareness about HIV/AIDS among India's 1.1 billion people of whom more than 5.1 million are living with the deadly virus.
That makes India the second worst affected nation after South Africa.
DELAY SEXUAL DEBUT
"The film's message is that today's youngsters should delay their sexual debut, practise safe sex and be loyal in their relationships and not be prejudiced against other faiths," said Reverend Dominic Emmanuel, the film's executive producer and a spokesman for the Catholic diocese in New Delhi.
The church production also focuses on religious harmony in a pluralistic India.
"We decided to use popular Bollywood cinema to get across our message because that way it reaches the maximum number of people," Emmanuel said.
The film, so far, has had a lukewarm response from the public, but its producers say they hope to do well in the country's east and northeast, which account for the bulk of India's almost two per cent Christian population.
The film has songs and dances and is high on melodrama as a rebellious son seeks to earn money and respect for his mother - whose husband left her - but ends up paying for his sexual indiscretions and infects his girlfriend with HIV.
Former Bollywood leading lady Rati Agnihotri plays the mother in the 20 million rupees (US$440,000) film that also has in its cast several young and lesser-known actors.
"How many people attend church? For social messages to get to the masses a medium like Bollywood has to be used effectively," said Father C.M. Paul, a Catholic priest in the eastern city of Kolkata.
Until now, the church in India made social documentaries watched only by a small number of diligent church-goers, Paul said. Recent Bollywood films such as My Brother Nikhil and Phir Milenge (We will meet again) have tackled the issue of HIV/AIDS in a new trend that critics call campaign cinema.
