As Indian film Sereng from Jharkhand goes big, director NPK Purshotam dives into the buzz around it

The film, shot in the Nagpuri language, has been dubbed in Hindi with English subtitles, Santali, and Khortha, the latter two being widely spoken in Jharkhand

Over 1000 km north from Mumbai, a love story is causing a rebellion, albeit on screen. Quintessentially, Bollywood has been the stable of romances of all kinds for a huge part of the Indian audience. But it seems like the intimate, largely overlooked film industry of Jharkhand has delivered a story of love that its people can call their own: Sereng, a film in the Nagpuri language. But the rousing success of the feature is significant not only because it's a huge win for the local cinema, but also because it's political and defiant, something mainstream Hindi cinema has strictly stayed away from, lest it receives the wrath of the country's volatile political climate.

"We are planning to arrange select shows in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Goa," director NPK Purshotam tells Sunday mid-day over a phone call. Sereng, which stars Vivek Nayak and Shweta Prajapati, registered the biggest ever opening week collection - Rs 10 lakh - for a film from the Jharkhand industry. Released on May 8, the film has so far amassed Rs 25 lakh. It isn't that the film industry hasn't seen such acclaim before. In fact, the 2024 Hindi-Kurukh film Humans of Loop earned a terrific response internationally, so much so that it entered the Oscars 2025 race in the best original screenplay category.

A tribal girl, Maaghi Munda, migrates to Ranchi after surviving a tragedy and finds an unlikely companion in Seraj Ansari, a musician. The film explores the themes of displacement, women's agency, and corruption

But what Sereng does is use something as commercial as a boy-meets-girl story to speak on all matters considered taboo. And with packed cinema halls, it only shows that the Jharkhand film industry has a voice that cannot be ignored anymore. "Weeks ago, I had emailed Meenakshi Shedde [film curator] about my film and just a day before its release, I got an email from her that said she wanted to send the film to the Toronto International Film Festival [TIFF]. I have submitted it. Let's see what happens," he smiles.

A tribal girl, Maaghi Munda, migrates to Ranchi after surviving a tragedy and finds an unlikely companion in Seraj Ansari, a musician. The film explores the themes of displacement, women's agency, and corruption, but a section is not able to move beyond the names of the lead characters - Maaghi Munda and Seraj Ansari. As Purshotam sees people walk out of theatres visibly moved by the film, he finds it hard to make sense of the word "love jihad" that some are attaching with it.

NPK Purshotam

"When we released our visual assets, no one objected to anything. The romance between the two characters is in the trailer itself. But just before the release, a big group started calling for a boycott. I was shocked. When the film released, word-of-mouth was so strong that the second show was housefull. Many political leaders praised it. But those who hadn't watched the film tried to create a narrative that I was showing love jihad. But there is no love jihad in the film. There's a dream that the two characters weave of getting married to each other. The story shows the guy's contribution to her evolution, and she wants to be with him. There are some propagandists, some adivasi leaders, who wanted to hog the limelight, hence claiming that the film was a negative influence on women," he explains.

Puroshotam is unfazed, owing to his conviction in his creation. "I told these people to watch the film and then debate with me. But no one dared to do that. A Hindu nationalist leader, Bhairav Singh, who is a big face of RSS-BJP in Jharkhand, said that he would burn effigies after watching the film. After watching the film, he hugged both the actors and praised the film. In an interview, he said that the film should be sent for the Oscars, but added, ‘Seraj se bachke rahiye [Be wary of Seraj]'. He is repeatedly making that statement. So I told him, ‘The Seraj that you have seen might be different. But if my Seraj is not hurting you, then why are you saying all this?'"

What makes the filmmaker particularly happy is that the things he has achieved with this film are far greater than the controversy it finds itself in. For a man born in the small town of Simdega, who would borrow cameras from his friends to shoot for a day, and made his first short film in just Rs 60, Sereng is a big-screen expression of his socially conscious voice.

Seraj is shown as a Pasmanda Muslim. But this is not the first time that the director has brought in front under-represented communities. In his claim-to-fame short, Bandha Khet (2021), which he shot in his village with a Rs 500 budget, his protagonist belonged to a marginalised caste. "When I screened the film in my village, I was asked by savarna people, ‘Why have you made a scheduled caste person as your hero?' I don't know how they look at this but, for me, it's a character. I have always felt that cinema is a medium through which you can give a very strong message to society. My village falls under the red zone area. It is a huge area for the Maoists. I remember how the village used to be shut at least three days a week because of the Maoist movement. In Sereng, I have explored why a young person becomes a Maoist. There are job issues, internal conflicts, political conflicts, and outer interference. But when he turns into one, he criticises it. He tells his sister, ‘Hum ek aise daldal mei phas gaye hain jahan se nikalna mushkil hai [I am stuck in a marsh which is difficult to escape]'," he shares.

Sereng is Purushotam's second feature after Dahleez (2022), which was removed from theatres within a week, "despite running housefull," he says, "Because Yash Raj Films' Jayeshbhai Jordar (2022) had arrived. Now, it's been almost a month, but Sereng continues its run in theatres."