After completing its run at the box office, Bastar: The Naxal Story was released on Zee5 on May 17, 2024. Bastar: The Naxal Story has been created by the 'brave storytellers' of the controversial movie The Kerala Story. Therefore, some people believe that Bastar's True Story is propaganda rather than facts. However, keeping the controversies aside, let's talk about the movie. Directed by Sudipto Sen, Bastar is a true story that highlights the 2010 Tadmetla incident in which 75 CRPF personnel and a state policeman were martyred by a battalion-strong contingent of PLGA, the 'military' wing of CPI(Maoist), in the dense forests between Chintalnar and Tadmetla, then in Dantewada district.
Talking about characters guide, Bastar features Adah Sharma as I.P.S. Neerja Madhavan, Indira Tiwari as Ratna, Vijay Krishna as Lanka Reddy, Shilpa Shukla as Neelam Nagpal, Yashpal Sharma as Utpal Trivedi, Subrat Dutta as Millind Kashyap, Raima Sen as Vanya Roy, and more in the leading roles. While many scenes shown in the movie are somewhat similar to reality, one character who has indeed raised the eyebrows of the fans is Vanya Roy played by Raima Sen. Now, the question arises who is real-life Vanya Roy?
Who is the real-life Vanya Roy shown in Bastar?
The makers of the movie stated at the start of the movie that it is based on a true story but it does not support any political parties. However, the makers have revealed that they have used fictional names in the movie. As a result, fans are wondering who is Vanya Roy. For those who haven't watched the movie yet, Vanya Roy is an author & a University Professor against whom a court case is going on. Vanya has been accused of passing information to the Naxals in Bastar.
Talking about real-life Vanya Roy, the makers haven't pointed out anyone in particular. However, Eagle Eye fans have shared multiple clips on social media highlighting Vanya's staunch similarity with Indian author Arundhati Roy.
As a result, True Scoop News tried to dig more into the claims made by fans that Vanya Roy's character is inspired by Arundhati Roy. There is a scene of a meeting during which a LeT commander says that only Vanya Roy had the guts to say that 'Kashmir is not an integral part of India'.
On cross-checking, a video of Arundhati Roy is available in public domain in which she said that 'Kashmir has never been an integral part of India'.
In the viral video, Arundhati Roy says, "A Kashmiri journalist asked me is Kashmir an integral part of India or not?"
"Look, Kashmir has never been an integral part of India."
Vanya Roy's resemblance to Arundhati Roy
Another video was shared on social media. In a scene in Zee5's Bastar movie, Vanya Roy spills venom against the Indian Army and the CRPF while sitting in the media. Interestingly, a similar kind of video is available in which Arundhati Roy says, "The Army and the Police are using rape as a weapon against people in places like Chhattisgarh, Kashmir, Manipur, and so on."
Arundhati Roy and Naxalism
For those who are unaware, Arundhati Roy is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling Arundhati Roy has come under the scanner of Police and the media for romanticizing naxalism in India multiple times.
A report was published by a newswire in which Arundhati Roy said that she will continue to back the Maoists' armed struggle even if she is put behind bars. While claiming that she does not support violence, the Booker prize winner feels that the Naxal movement could be nothing but an armed struggle as the Gandhian way would not have been successful in the present context.
(NOTE- True Scoop News would like to clarify that it does not intend to accuse anyone, but present the facts that the fans on social media are alleging)