Oscar-nominated documentary, To Kill a Tiger, alleged to have violated POCSO Act

To Kill A Tiger, by Nisha Pahuja, explores the fight for justice of a 13-year-old gang rape victim, whose name and face have allegedly been revealed in the documentary, a gross violation of Indian law

A still of the father of the child survivor from the documentary To Kill A Tiger that will be out on Netflix on March 10

The multi-award-winning documentary To Kill A Tiger will, probably, soon be an Oscar winner too; it’s got enough A-list backing (Mindy Kaling, Dev Patel, Priyanka Chopra Jonas) to help it along that course. The documentary, which drops on Netflix today (March 10), after being pushed ahead from its earlier March 8 date, is, however, allegedly problematic as far as the extent of exploration of a minor’s gang-rape goes.

In an article published in Himal South Asian, independent journalist Anna M Vetticad points out that the Canadian documentary violates India’s Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Pahuja’s documentary follows the gang-rape of a young girl in Jharkhand in 2017. Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2022, the documentary includes footage of the survivor being interviewed while still a minor.

Subsequently, the survivor, who is now an adult, has revealed her identity, but the filmmaker has allegedly offered no explanation if the rules of the land (India) were followed during the three-and-a-half years she shot the documentary. Section 23 of POCSO Act prohibits revealing the identity of a child rape survivor in any form, which, To Kill A Tiger allegedly violates.

While Pahuja has remained unavailable for comment, filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, who has seen the documentary, after it was made available to stream for free on the Canadian National Film Board’s site, had pointed out that the survivor’s real name is revealed, although she had been given a pseudonym for the purpose of the film.

Vetticad also states that all her correspondence with Pahuja about the legal due diligence followed in interviewing a child survivor remained unanswered, although a social activist who was involved in the documentary said that the team operated based on ‘verbal, written and on camera’ consent of the parents and the survivor, once she attained the age of 18. Under POCSO, only a special court can grant permission to reveal the identity of a child survivor.

The case is still sub-judice, with the perpetrators having appealed their conviction.

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