New Delhi, India

A short documentary film titled Pink Belt is making the right kind of noise in film festivals and award shows. The documentary film is based on the life of Aparna Rajawat, India’s sixteen-time national champion in martial arts who had to pass off as a boy to get karate lessons and participate in competitions for the lack of any for girls. The film is directed by John McCrite who got together with Aparna to tell her journey of survival, resilience and "never give up attitude" to make India a safe place for women. 

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Pink Belt follows Aparna while she attempts to break the Guinness World Record for most women trained in a self-defence lesson to bring attention to her mission. We got talking to the film’s director about his vision for the film, capturing Aparna’s journey and meeting up with actor-director Boman Irani.

Here are the edited excerpts from the chat: 

Q: What was your vision for the film Pink Belt?

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A: I wanted to find interesting ways to tell Aparna’s story, to make it more visual than just sit-down interviews. She told me a story about how she never got milk growing up because her mother believed that boys should get milk because they worked harder. At the time, Aparna spoke up and said, “if they get the milk, then they should do all the work”, because it is the women doing all the work around the house. I wanted to capture the essence of her life story. 

The vision for the finished film is that it starts a conversation about women’s safety and empowerment and not just in India but globally. Women empowerment is a global issue. Articles like this are the first step. Then getting the movie seen on international platforms is the next step.

Q: What intrigued you about the protagonist's story the most? 

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A: When she told me that to take karate lessons as a child and compete in tournaments, she had to pass as a boy, because they didn’t have many competitions for girls at that time. That story caught my attention. She learned that boys are treated like kings and girls are treated like servants. After learning that lesson, it changed her life. That’s the hero’s journey. 

Pink Belt

Once the hero enters a new world, it’s hard for them to go back to the old world they knew. Aparna didn’t fit in anymore because she knew too much to go back. She made it her mission to teach women safety and self-determination. She was challenged by her brothers when she spoke up in her home. She saw the injustices and had the courage to speak up, even if it meant being beaten. She became a champion for other girls too. I wanted to know how a human rights activist is made and, in the film, through Aparna’s story you see that.

Q: The Pink Belt has been receiving a lot of love at film festivals. Did you expect this buzz around the film? 

A: I always saw the beauty in Aparna’s story but we got so many rejections at first. When I was in Chicago, I heard other filmmakers share their rejection stories. I began to get discouraged. I wondered why this amazing story was being looked over. A friend told me to send a copy to Craig Prater, who used to program the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He called and said he loved it and asked if he could have a sneak preview with it as a benefit for a museum in Palm Springs. It was a sold-out theatre and we got to watch and hear an audience experience the film for the first time. They gasped in certain scenes. I could hear sniffles and see people wipe away tears. They laughed during the comic moments and cheered Aparna at the end. When it was over, they jumped to their feet with a standing ovation.

Pink Belt

I knew in my heart we had created something special and every time I got a rejection after that, I remembered that audience. Then we won the Jury Award in the Chicago South Asian Film Festival and then the audience award the next day at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival in Boston. It started getting rave reviews on Rotten Tomatoes all in that same weekend. 

After five long years of struggles, it felt like we were an overnight sensation. Then we started getting emails from festivals. It takes one person, or one audience to believe in your story, and it can turn things around.

Q: What do you hope to achieve from your film Pink Belt? 

A: My intention from the very beginning was to tell Aparna’s story in hopes others would be as moved as I was. I hope that this message of female empowerment will reach a young girl, who I will never meet, and it will change her life. It will empower her. I would like to go on a tour of schools with Aparna and show the film. 

We are also working on her book. I can envision this becoming an event at colleges and secondary schools. It can be a teaching tool. One girl who saw it in Jaipur said it made her want to live her life as freely as a boy. That made creating the film worth all the struggles.

Q: How did you get in touch with Aparna Rajawat?

A: We met when I was on vacation in India and she was our tour manager. When we were driving into Delhi, she said we had to open the curtains on the bus because of laws enacted by the Nirbhaya case, the young woman who was gang raped on the bus. Aparna said she started Pink Belt Mission to teach girls self-defence so it wouldn’t happen to another girl. I wanted to help Aparna get her story out to the world because it’s important. It’s needed in India and globally.

Q: You won along with Boman Irani. Any comment on that?

A: On the opening night of The Mehta Boys, he spoke about directing his first feature film in his mid-sixties. I just turned sixty a few months ago and it gave me hope that it’s never too late to live your dreams. Age is just a number. It’s the age of your house, your body, not of your spirit. 

Pink Belt

The next day, I met Boman in the lobby and asked if I could take a picture with him. I told him his words meant so much to me. To find out that we both won awards for our first feature films, had even more meaning. The film industry is geared towards the young but storytelling knows no age. When it’s your time to tell a story, it will happen. It fits with the story of Aparna’s life – to never give up.

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