Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate season opener disappointed this Bihar village

On Sunday, villagers had foregone the first meal of the day to watch the season opener featuring the life and native surroundings of Bihar's 'mountain man' Dashrath Manjhi. But the episode aired at the appointed hour was about rape victims from across the country.

For 250-odd residents of Gehlaur village in Muhra block, about 35 km east of the south central Bihar district headquarters town of Gaya, it turned out to be a different

sanima

(cinema) from the one they were expecting.

On Sunday, villagers had foregone the first meal of the day and assembled at the agriculture department hall to watch

Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate season-2

opener featuring the life and native surroundings of Bihar's 'mountain man'

Dashrath Manjhi

. But the episode aired at the appointed hour was about rape victims from across the country.

Legend has it that Manjhi carved a road through a mountain in the Gehlaur hills, working day and night for 22 years from 1960 to 1982.

Aamir's office had announced in advance the episode dedicated to Manjhi. The actor-director had even paid a

much-publicised visit

to the village on February 25 to promote the opening episode 'dedicated to Manjhi and the Gehlaur valley'.

"We had skipped our first meal of the day to turn up for the show empty stomach," said Dashrath Manjhi's daughter in law Basanti Devi.

"I had just placed food on chulha to be cooked when people from the channel (Star Plus) landed at our tola and brought us here to watch the show on Baba (Dashrath Manjhi)," Basanti told HT immediately after the show ended.

Rajkumar Raju, a local social worker and journalist who has had a long association with the Manjhi family, said a team of technicians had landed up at Gehlaur early Sunday with satellite TV paraphernalia to telecast the

show.

"The Star TV technicians went to Dashrathnagar dalit tola, located about a kilometre from Gehlaur and brought the Manjhi family here to watch the show as they don’t have a TV set," said Raju.

"They came to this hall, leaving their uncooked food on chulha. Even Star TV technicians are clueless why the Manjhi episode was not telecast. I had to pacify the disappointed crowd," he added.