Mumbai: Actor Sharman Joshi believes his next Graham Staines, Ek Ankahi Sachai: The Least of These is an important film. It is important because the film deals with the issue of religious extremism. According to Sharman Joshi religious extremism is very much prevalent in the society.
The film, Graham Staines, Ek Ankahi Sachai, is directed by Aneesh Daniel. The film is based on the ghastly killing of the Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in Odisha in 1999.
Sharman, 41, said the film questions extremism of any kind and make people understand the importance of tolerance. “It’s an important film as it’s based on a true story. We are hoping that the takeaway for the audience would be that any act of extremism should be frowned down,” Sharman stated.
“Whatever religion, faith or philosophy you believe in, it should be given absolute freedom. The purpose of this film is for all of us to understand the importance of tolerance,” Sharman added.
Graham worked in Odisha since 1965 as part of an evangelical missionary organisation which looked after people with leprosy. The family’s brutal killing had sent shockwaves through India. It also became a talking point for religious intolerance.
Sharman said such incidents have happened across the world and continue even today. That is the reason why the film’s relevance remains ‘pretty dominant’.
“It is bad and absolutely sad. But I’m an optimist. I feel because the world now has information freely available. It’ll help in the clearing of the misunderstanding, exploitation, manipulation that people, politicians do,” Sharman asserted.
“People, at least majority of them, won’t hopefully take it seriously. They should not get into situations such as these (of extremism) where heinous crimes have been committed in the name of religion, faith and philosophy. I am hoping this would change,” he added.
Graham Staines, Ek Ankahi Sachai: The Least of These has been written by Andrew Matthew. The film released Friday on ‘ShemarooMe Box Office’ after a brief theatrical run last year.
Sharman plays as a journalist in the movie. He is given the task of finding out if Graham practiced religious conversion under the guise of social work.
The actor said he had no apprehension coming on board for the project as the guilty were sentenced. Also it wasn’t an ‘unsolved case’. However, the film doesn’t delve into the political happenings of the time, which had allegedly fuelled the killings.
“Politics has been kept away. We have focused more on Graham, the journalist and his journey towards discovering him. We have focused more on the human drama side of the story,” informed Sharman.
The film also features Stephen Baldwin, Prakash Belawadi and Aditi Chengappa.
