HYDERABAD: The murder of Sandhya Rani, a computer operator, by her alleged stalker is a grave reminder of a constantly recurring theme in most commercial Telugu movies in recent times- that of a hypermasculine hero who stalks and wins over a reluctant heroine. Interestingly, of all the cases filed with SHE team over a period of three years, 32 per cent of them were stalking cases. Also, 154 stalking cases were recorded in Hyderabad in 2016, up by 41 cases from 2015, says National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) 2016 data, pushing the state to fifth rank across India for crimes against women.
In the course of counselling stalkers who are minors, SHE Teams found similarities between the modus operandi of the stalker and movies. Many of the stalkers did not even know that their attempt to court a lady can get them booked under the Section 354D of the IPC. “The movies influence the youngsters and it’s high time the film industry writes script responsibly. What they enact comes to stalking, the youngsters watch these movie stars enacting such roles and follow them blindly,” said Swati Lakra, additional commissioner of police(Crimes) and head, SHE Team.
“Many times when we counsel the minors, many say they did not know it is wrong. The film industry need to change, if they see it just in terms of a commercial factor then they have a responsibility to society, such movies sell but at what societal cost?” she added. The Justice Verma committee, which was constituted after the 2012 Delhi rape case, in their report had recommended that stalking should be made a non-bailable offence. But the 2013 amendment to the criminal law act kept first offence stalking as a bailable offence despite the draft bill and the parliamentary standing committee report suggesting otherwise.
Efforts to make the first offence stalking a non-bailable offence are in the works in the form of a private members bill. “We are living in a traditional and narrow-minded society where man-woman relationships are not naturally accepted. So concepts of teenage and youth love are not known to many people,” explains Mahesh Kathi, Telugu film critic. When there are no available form of expressing love, the industry creates them. This gives the youth an idea to perceive stalking as a way of expressing love.