New Documentary ‘To Kill A Tiger’ Directed By Nisha Pahuja

A new documentary by director Nisha Pahuja To Kill A Tiger follows a family in a small remote village in India as they fight for justice for their 13-year-old daughter after she was sexually assaulted by three local youths. 

Ranjit and Jiganti are the parents of Kiran, a pseudonym to protect the identity of the young woman. Following the assault on Kiran, Ranjit and Jiganti refused to remain silent, and instead decided to press charges against the accused. 

The film follows the harrowing journey of the family as they risk backlash and violence from their community in their fight for justice. 

Nisha Pahuja, originally born in India and raised in Canada spent eight years working on the film. In an interview with Deadline Pahuja spoke about her experiences in India during filming, “You’re understanding the intricacies of what this village is, the fact that it is kind of an ecosystem that is rooted in survival… India is a culture that is not based necessarily on the individual. It emphasizes community.” 

Although that strong sense of community would come to hurt the family. Following the assault, many members of the village demand that Kiran marry one of the accused. The documentary shows one woman who lives in the village saying, “Marriage is the only solution. Her house has been shamed by that boy, so how can having him marry her be a bad thing? She can’t marry another man now. She has to marry him.” 

The film boasts of a prominent team of executive producers including Mindy Kaling, Dr. Atul Gawande, and most recently Dev Patel signed on to the project. 

“I’ve spent most of my career traveling, living, filming, and exploring in India, and it’s hard to ignore the cases of sexual violence against women and minors that flood the papers every day,” Patel said about his decision to sign on an executive producer for the movie, “Many of the friends that I’ve made there have been exposed to some form of predatory behavior. I lost a friend called Monica who was raped and murdered, and to see such potential extinguished – Monica, to me, represented a kind of modern, new India… It really is an issue of huge proportions in India and globally.”  

Getting big names in Hollywood to back the film was very important to Pahuja to spread the message that the film surrounds, “I’ve known for over a year that is this film was going to get out into the world, it would need the support of celebrities, people like Mindy and Dev… because it’s a tough subject. It’s a hard subject.” 

Patel was more than happy to join the film saying, “I’m kind of here as the hype man and we’re hoping to get some courageous Indian stars to join us on this so we can affect the everyman out there too.”