Guwahati: Hundreds of people belonging to the Dimasa community on Thursday took out a huge protest rally at Haflong town in Assam’s Dima Hasao district against the ‘misrepresentation’ of the Dimasa community in the award-winning movie, “Semkhor”.
The protester demanded an apology from actor and filmmaker Aimee Baruah, who directed the 2021 film. Baruah is the wife of Assam minister Pijush Hazarika.
The protesters also blamed filmmaker Aimee Baruah for the death of an 84-day-old infant cast in the film.
They said the infant was cast without the approval of the district magistrate claiming that this was a violation of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.
They alleged that child fell ill and died due to exposure to cold weather conditions.
The protesters demanded that further screening of the film at theatres be stopped so as to avoid further damage to the morality of the customs, traditions and livelihood of the Dimasa People.
“We urge for the withdrawal of Press Conferences of Director/Producer Aimee Baruah which she had given to different electronic media authenticating the story portrayed in the film ‘Semkhor’,” said Daniel Langthasa.
“We demand compensation to the Dimasa Society for defaming the customary morality of the community through the film ‘Semkhor’. We demand justice for the family of the baby artist ‘Claring’ who was cast in the film ‘Semkhor’,” he said.
Langthasa said necessary legal processes are also being carried out and if the ongoing movie screening is not put to an end by tomorrow, agitations will be carried out in Guwahati.
Several Dimasa outfits also asked President Draupadi Murmu to order to stop the screening of the film and get the film producer to apologize to the community.
“The film has represented Dimasa custom, tradition and livelihood in a very wrong way and this has hurt our sentiments and damaged the morality of our Dimasa people,” the memorandum submitted by the Dimasa bodies to the President said.
Earlier, the former president of All Dimasa Students Union, Mohendra Kemprai, filed an FIR against Aimee Baruah in this regard.