Manoj Bajpayee’s 29-year career is built of diverse roles, but oddly, he never played a lawyer. Now that he has donned the black robe for Bandaa, he is bringing to screen a case that had caught the country’s attention. In the upcoming film, the actor portrays Poonam Chand Solanki, the Jodhpur-based lawyer who led the prosecution against self-styled godman Asaram Bapu for raping a 16-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh, in his ashram in August 2013. 

Creative producer Suparn Varma says that the survivor’s courage prodded him to tell the story. “Her courage inspired a lawyer to stand against the country’s biggest lawyers,” he begins. At the same time, the film gave the producer an opportunity to analyse the role of faith and godmen in India. “In India, we are lucky to have a system where we have gurus and gyanis. But when some play around with faith, it hurts.”