Jessica murder case inspires film

While the Jessica Lal case continues to stir opinion in the country, film director Ujjwal Chatterjee (who made Escape from Taliban based on a real story) has “given justice to Jessica in the film Utthan, which means uplift”.

Produced by singer Kumar Sanu, the film starring Neha Dhupia and Priyanshu Chatterjee as Jessica and Manu Sharma will be released next month. “My story is entirely based on media reports about Jessica — right from the time she became a Miss India to her association with Manu Sharma, her relation ship with him and the night she was killed.

“I have tried to stay as close to reality as possible, because she (Jessica) was one of the key persons who knew what Manu Sharma and his father, Vinod Sharma, were all about,” says Ujjwal.

He adds, “Though it was made out that ‘she was killed because she refused him a drink’ there is a lot more to it. Actually, the deaths of women such as Jessica, Nandini Singh, Shivani Bhatnagar and Madhumeeta have one common point — they were killed by their own mentors.” Priyanshu “is shown to be a journalist who rises to become I&B minister through his political clout”. Next in line for Ujjwal is a film on Zaheera Sheikh and the Best Bakery case.