“Jabariya Jodi” Meets Underground Wrestling Gangs In Railway Raju

Railway Raju is a story of the jabariya jodis that are made in north India. Dinkar Rao the director came across one such girl in Delhi who was forcefully wedded to a man she escaped from. “I found her story very interesting. She had changed name to Maya and was living undetected from the people who were still hunting for her. I decided to retain her name for a character in the film,” says Dinkar Rao.

Maya is from a small village near the banks of the Ganges and we have used the Ganges to tell the story. “The film is narrated by Maya and it has the eponymous character of Raju – Railway Raju and her relationship with a man who belongs to the underworld wrestling gangs of Benares. The Benares underground wrestling gangs are not very popular because of the very nature of these gangs. These gangs operate in multiple ways. There is a huge betting going on in these wrestling bouts like out in the west where there are underground fights,” explains Rao.

Sunny Shaw and Lavanya Rao play the leads in the film which has Leena Malhotra as he creative director with S Ramachandran as the project designer.

Vkaao (PVR-Book My Show joint venture) releases the film on March 29, 2019.

Dinkar Rao directed the film sZoya the black widow about a woman violated in the riots which happened in Mumbai and Gujarat. That film was the official selection at Strasbourg International film festival and the Milan International film festival. It was banned by CBFC and finally passed by the Appellate Tribunal with 26 cuts. His other short film Asthi, about a daughter running off to Haridwar to immerse the ashes of her classical singer was premiered at Cannes Court Metrage. Rao is also directing a film Papoo Photowalah with an international cast and is about the search for the diary of John Nicholson, The British East India Company hero of 1857 & treasures hidden by the British. Another documentary film Dancing Daughters was at WIP lab at Film Bazaar Goa as Snake Dancers of the Thar and is being filmed.  About Railway Raju he says “It’s very tough to shoot 100+ scenes including action, song outdoor scenes of the Ganges in this “shoe string” budget. I always wanted to make a gang-war film within social aspects of Uttar Pradesh,” Says Dinkar.

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