Making Bhojpuri cinema to clean its image, says Neetu Chandra

Mumbai, Dec 15 (IANS) Actress Neetu Chandra who became a producer with films like "Deswa" and "Mithila Makhaan" said she wants to make Bhojpuri films to clean the image of her mother tongue.

Asked why she wants to produce Bhojpuri films despite doing content-driven Hindi films, Neetu said: "I come from Bihar where Bhojpuri films are seen as soft porn, cheap, double meaning films.

"The moment you hear Bhojpuri, you don't want to be associated with it. They (Bhojpuri films) are looked down upon and rightfully so... There are reasons. I refuse to accept that this is the cinema of my mother tongue.

"That's where I and my brother Nitin, who had all the achievements and education to do Hindi cinema, chose to do Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi films. We wanted to do films to clean the image of our mother tongue which has been maligned," said Neetu.

"It has nothing to do with business, it's like they say 'if you want change, you have to be the change'."

With brother Nitin Chandra who is a National Award winning director, Neetu runs a Production House called Champaran Talkies.

The house produces Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi films along with other content for their platform NeoBihar.

Asked whether she would prefer to produce regional content films or commercial Hindi films, the "Garam Masala" actress said: "I think content-driven films with a commercial angle is what should be done."

Talking about her first production "Deswa", Chandra said: "'Deswa' became a very big film for Bhojpuri and very small for Hindi cinema. The Bhojpuri industry mafia did not let us release it. So finally we came up with a platform NeoBihar where we will release the film and work on different content-based videos."

"Deswa" will be released on December 23 on NeoBihar YouTube Channel of Champaran Talkies.