People should realise and become conscious of the treatment meted out to nature, according to film director Nila Madhab Panda.
The Bollywood director showcased his fiction film "Kaun Kitne Paani Mein" at the 8th edition of the CMS Vatavaran Film Festival, ongoing here. The film, a satire set up in rural India on water crisis talks about the current scenario in the country and how water is set to become a scarce currency unless attempts are made to save and manage it.
"I have been attached to the story because it is the story of my area Kalahandi in Odisha. The area suffered a man-made drought for three decades. It was rain shadow area. We did not store whatever little rain water which used to trickle into our region. For our short sightedness we had to suffer a man-made drought for three decades," Panda said.
The ongoing festival with the theme "Water for Life" with a special focus on conserving the country's water bodies is showcasing the importance of not only storing water but cleaning up rivers in the country.
"The main point is the situation in the country is such whatever rainfall that we are getting or whatever we are doing with the nature it's high time that we must realize and get conscious about it."
"Kalahandi was a zone which you used to produce rice for the entire nation and after the three decades drought the region is back to its old form of production. It is now green. This means there is some where we were at fault more than the nature. We are corrupt," Panda said
The film was released as a main stream Bollywood film in August and has drawn critical acclaim from the film fraternity as well as the audiences. The low budget film has a strong message to give out is a story about two villages, Upri and Bairi.
