HOSTEL movie news,HOSTEL Manish Gupta,Manish Gupta hostel,Manish Gupta takes on Raju Hirani

Writer-Director Manish Gupta who has a track record of writing hard-hitting, realistic films like SARKAR and THE STONEMAN MURDERS speaks about his next film HOSTEL. 'Though I loved and thoroughly enjoyed Rajkumar Hirani's 3 IDIOTS and MUNNABHAI MBBS, I was left a little dissatisfied at the way Ragging was portrayed in both films - since it was made to look funny. In my opinion, there's nothing funny about being stripped naked in front of the whole college and being tortured. I personally would compare it to making rape or molestation made to look funny. Ragging is a very serious and grave issue staring India in the eye today. Innumerable students have lost their lives to this menace. Many have been crippled for life; many have committed suicide due to the humiliation of public stripping. The statistics are shocking - 20 suicides and 15 deaths are reported every year with Ragging as the root cause. There's nothing funny about that...Raju Sir...' says Manish, in a grave tone. Further he adds, 'The Government of India has outlawed Ragging and made it a crime. As I look at it, making someone's humiliation and torture look funny is as mean and cruel as making fun of a deaf and dumb person or making a cinematic joke out of someone who stammers. In my film HOSTEL, after 17 years of research, I've portrayed Ragging exactly as it happens in all its violent and humiliating cruelty and I have portrayed the psychological and physical trauma one goes through when it happens to him or her. By doing this, I earnestly hope that at least a small part of India's population will wake up to the actual magnitude of this menace, rather than laughing it away.'