Satish Kaushik: It is an achievement when High Court refers to your film

Satish Kaushik’s Kaagaz was used as a reference in the Delhi High Court judgement; says It shows how good cinema can influence society and bring healthy changes.

They say, cinema imitates real life. But sometimes, films influence real world, too. Case in point: Filmmaker-actor Satish Kaushik’s human drama, Kaagaz (2021), was recently used as a reference in the Delhi High Court. Recently, the court heard a plea where a woman appealed to rectify her date of birth incorrectly mentioned in her Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) marksheet.

Satish Kaushik (AFP)

Happy with the reference of the film in High Court, Kaushik says, “You feel a sense of achievement when a High Court judge refers to your film for a verdict in a court case. It shows how good cinema can influence society and bring healthy changes. In fact, after Kaagaz’s release, some people who were declared dead on official records, were announced alive by the district authorities in Uttar Pradesh. All this praise has encouraged me to tell the stories of trials and tribulation of a common man.”

In the judgement, the bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh quoted from Kaagaz, and said that the film “depicts the pangs and plight of people for papers at the pedestals of bureaucracy — the treatment that is meted out to poor people and how those without power and influence are made running from pillar to post”.

Kaushik’s film featured actor Pankaj Tripathi as a man fighting the system that declared him dead on paper.