Film on skateboarding courts controversy as activist Reinhard says it’s based on her life; Skater Girl director Makijany asserts it draws from stories across India
A still from Skater Girl
Days after the release of the Netflix film, 'Skater Girl', Ulrike Reinhard found her inbox flooded with congratulatory messages. The German social activists’ work in enabling Asha Gond—an underprivileged resident of Janwaar, whose inspirational stories of overcoming odds to pursue her love for skating—has been lauded for years, and netizens could draw parallels between her life story, and what unfolded on screen.
But, Reinhard doesn’t find herself rejoicing the release of debutante director Manjari Makijany’s film. She laments the fact that the makers went ahead and made it, despite her fall-out with them. “[I was told] that it was based on my life. They had also told me it was based on a girl, which was obviously Asha, given that she was the person I would talk about to them. The filmmaker says it is not based on this story, but there is no other instance of a foreigner coming to a rural village, building a skatepark, and working with the community,” says Reinhard of the character Jessica, played by Amy Maghera. “But, Jessica’s story is my own,” argues Makijany, an LA resident of Indian heritage, who built a skating park in Rajasthan, ahead of the shooting of the film. She further argues that it was the unit instead that found themselves revisiting their association with Reinhard after they began to question her “credibility”.
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Ulrike Reinhard and Manjari Makijany
In emails sent to Reinhard, which mid-day has access to, the deal of a co-working experience had been set out. “We had Skype calls, in-person meetings with the producer and director in Janwaar and Jaipur, and also interactions with the filmmaker’s sister [Vinati], who had come to Janwaar to cast for the film. I also had a contract to work with them as a research consultant, but I left it because while they had promised to work as co-creators, they were not interested in highlighting our processes,” says Reinhard, further making a case for Gond, whose life story, she asserts, forms the crux of the film. But, Makijany argues that the team interacted with several skateboarding communities across India, and couldn’t limit their portrayal to the story of Gond alone. “They would have liked it if [their names] were significantly present. But how could we take away from the 300 girls across the country who we interviewed, and whose lives we saw had changed,” says Vinati, also the film’s writer.
When mid-day interacted with Gond, she confirmed that a scene in the film was lifted off her interaction with the team, without her approval, but adds that her interaction with the makers had been limited to that occasion alone. “If [Gond] could see her life story in the film from the trailer, we celebrate that, because we wanted to make it relatable. I’ve got so many calls from girls across the country, including those from Brazil and Portugal, saying they could relate to the story. The film is not based on one person or instance,” Makijany signs off.
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