Students from northeast often complain of “discrimination” in the mainland. And director Subham Singh has beautifully portrayed the issue in his upcoming film, Penalty.

Manipur boy Lukram Smil is playing the lead role in Penalty along with Kay Kay Menon, who is playing the role of a coach.

Produced by Nilesh Sakhiya, Ritu Shrivastava and Aditya Shrivastava, under the banner of Rudrakshh Films, Penalty is scheduled to be released on July 19.

Subham Singh has brilliantly depicted the issue of racism which revolves around the story of a northeast footballer Lukram, who faces discrimination and backlashes at every step.

Braving discriminations, the hero of the film manages to fight for his dream as a football player.

The story writer of the film, Akhilesh Choudhary said the chronicle is based on his observations of the challenges faced by the northeast students during his college days.

“When I was studying in college, about 50 percent students were from the north-east. During my three years in college, I don’t recall a single time, a students from north-east said hello to me or anyone,” Akhilesh said.

Akhilesh said he did not see any boy or girl from the northeast mingling around with other students hailing from mainland India. “They even had their fresher-parties separately,” he said.

“This is a big issue. We hail from the same country, he is my fellow countryman, but still the distance between us is tremendous,” Akhilesh said.

The story writer said discrimination exists in sports, education and even picking up friend. “I wanted to address this issue, first I thought I would make a documentary,” he said.

After coming to Mumbai, Akhilesh thought about making the film on the backdrop of football. Discrimination issue is huge in India, even in the arena of football playgrounds. It needs to be addressed,” he said.

The film will also features Manjot Singh, Shashank Arora, Aakash Dabhade, Srishti Jain, Bijou Thaangjam.

“The story is based on social issue, so it didn’t require any big actors,” Akhilesh said. The director decided to go with Kay Kay Menon, Manjot Singh and Shashank Arora, and they have added more power to the story.

Lachit Roy is a student of Dept. of Mass Communication and Journalism, Tezpur University