This is just one of the few ads I have just witnessed that has left me stunned. The others feature Zakir Hussain stating how when music and lyrics have no religion, then how can tears have a religion, and Aamir Khan and Ashutosh saying: “So many crimes are carried out in the name of belief. Will any God of any religion ever forgive such atrocities? Make humanity your belief system.” Sachin Tendukar features in another and another has a medley of many. This campaign is called Stop the Hatred and is aimed at putting a halt to the inbred hate that is destroying secular India and is seeping through to many cultures and societies worldwide. A direct reaction to the Gujerat riots where many were massacred, the ads use images so familiar from the time, yet cannot explicitly refer to the incident without upsetting the Government.

I’m handed a cup of tea and 29 year old Rohena Gera looks at me asking if I’m ok. Young, beautiful, wide-eyed and with a striking look of innocence about her, Rohena is the person who is responsible for the campaign. She’s not a hired filmmaker working to a brief or someone being paid to shoot the ads, she’s merely someone who could not stand to watch what was happening and did something about it. She is what we would term a real hero, and she is about to touch the world just as she has me, with a campaign that is so powerful it will bring tears to your eyes.

“The goal of this campaign is to counter the hate propaganda that is being disseminated so efficiently throughout the country. The point is not be controversial or to fight any political party or personality but to simply reach out to the people and try to stop this epidemic of hatred. Today, Indians - men and women, old and especially young - need to hear that we are one people, and that most of us can and do live as one,” she says as we sit discussing what she’s just showed me.

This is an ordinary young woman’s journey since her decision not to just sit tight and accept what was going on in a place that was fast becoming void of humanity. This is how Rohena Gera brought to life a campaign that will change the world.

“One tiny idea...” “I was unable to deal with what was going on the way some others were. It was too horrific and too real for me to accept and just sit there. I thought I just have to do something and thought what if we could get people to say something that projects the image of the other side. Something that actively works against the propaganda that is being spread, so it started from there: one tiny idea.”

“The Long Drive that Changed Everything..” “It was May 9th and a bunch of us were taking a long drive to the Taj in town and these questions were just in my head and I kept saying ‘what if I do this?’ and then we’d talk about something else and then I’d go back to it again, so it was constantly on my mind. The whole way I was thinking about it and saying what if we get these influential people and do this.”

“The Road Ahead” “I spoke to people and initially I did get feedback saying it’ll never happen because these people are extremely vulnerable because they are recognised people. The Government is not very kind to people who take a stand against it, so I was told I had to be careful what to expect of people and what I could I ask them to do and the extent to which I could ask them to stick their neck out.”

“Decision Time” “I thought about it and just decided I had to do it and do it on my own so it remained free of vested interests. I had no experience of production and had no credentials and wasn’t part of any NGO or governmental body so had a lot working against me, I had to literally go up to these people and say this is what’s happening and …just beg!”

“One Voice” “And that worked fine, people listened and related because I was just a concerned person who felt something needed to be done. It was something no one could ignore because you were reading about it in the papers everyday and everyone was shocked but no one felt they could do anything about it. I found that one by one people listened and were totally supportive. I spoke to Abhishek first and he was very responsive saying ‘yeah you’ve got to do this, it needs to be done’ which helped me a lot and gave me encouragement, and it stemmed from there.”

“All I Want is Five Minutes..” “All I was asking them was for literally five minutes and even that too wherever they would be. It was the kind of thing that was literally asking them to do something that would not take too much of time, is helping a cause they feel very strongly about and also was not just paying lip service because many of them are secular, it doesn’t matter what religion you are. Some of them were relieved to be able to do something for an issue they felt strongly about and believed in.”

“Hope” “The most memorable of the people I approached was Aamir and Ashutosh probably because they sat and gave me a lot of time and heard me out and their approach to it was amazing. The sincerity they showed was very encouraging, because they were in Bhuj too and so they had been to Gujurat so perhaps they felt more strongly. Their genuineness and sincerity just struck me and gave me hope.”

“First Response” “Most of the reactions were like yours which was a lot of silence, which I now know is a good thing because it shows the message is getting across somewhere.”

“The Online Campaign: www.stopthehatred.com ” “I got a lot of feedback through the website which was great. The site was set up to make the ads accessible to the Indians abroad and an international audience, so it’s good to get a lot of comments from abroad. People from Muscat, Dubai, New York and all over India were all writing expressing support or asking questions which was interesting. It was as if people had found some sort of hope to hang on to.”

“Shooting Mr Bachchan” “After Mr. Amitabh Bachchan had agreed to shoot with me, I was doing mental cartwheels, because I know what he means to people. If he said something, people would listen, but, I had to shoot with him soon because he was scheduled to leave town for over a month in less than a week.”

“His secretary, Rosy asked me to shoot him on the sets, so I arrived at the Kaante sets with my crew. I had butterflies in my stomach - to be shooting for the first time in my life and that too with the Mr Bachchan! He had arrived and was in his make up room. So my production manager Husain went about trying to wangle a quiet place to shoot. Suddenly, I saw Mr. Bachchan emerge from his room, and speak to Sanjay Gupta, the director of Kaante. Then, while I watched, Mr. Bachchan left. He had just got a message that his father was unwell, and he had to go home. The Kaante shoot was packed up, and so were we. This was Day One of the Stop the hatred shoot.”

“Mr. Bachchan’s secretary was quite prompt to reschedule, and so I returned to the same location a few days later to shoot with him. He was on the sets so I went to meet him just to let him know that we would set up and wait for him and he looked at me and said: “What are we going to do about this?” - He had a beard for the film…and we couldn’t shoot with him with a beard! Once again, we would have to reschedule.”

“Finally, the third time, I was asked to come to the JW Marriott hotel. I was at madh island, at about nine at night, waiting to shoot with Raveena Tandon, when Rosy called and told me we could shoot the next day at noon. Mr. Bachchan was going to be shooting stills for a Parker Pens ad. It sounded good…until I realised that the Marriott charges large fees to allow people to shoot. I started making frantic calls: was there someone who could get the Marriott to write off the location charges…?”
“The next day, I landed up at the Marriott lobby at 9.30 in the morning, begging the PR director Lianne Branganza to let me shoot. She was very nice but she said she couldn’t help it. Every single space was taken. Finally, after pacing in the lobby for two hours, she managed to get us a room which was opposite the room that would be used by Mr. Bachchan for his make up. We got to the room and started setting up but then, we plugged in some lights and it tripped. Obviously a hotel room is not equipped to bear the load of those lights!”
“Anyway, after a little more panicking we managed to pull power from another room, and got set up. Mr. Bachchan arrived. He called me to his make up room and I went there, afraid that there was going to be some other problem. But he just said…“I’m wearing a suit for the Parker shoot but I would like to wear a Pathan suit for yours. What do you think?” I babbled something between “excellent, yay, and whatever you want,” and went back to wait for him in the next room. I finally got the shot and things just got better from there on.”

“What people can do” “I hope people will talk about it, that’s the best thing they can do. I feel people should realise that it’s not okay to say “I have nothing against Muslims but I wouldn’t keep a Muslim servant in my house” and things like that. I’ve got t-shirts made which I hope look cool enough for people to wear and will become a trend that will subconsciously spread the message. They were made and given to Hallmark to be sold for proceeds to go to Action Aid, so we have two designs a unique black one for girls and this white one for boys with two different collar styles.”

“The Impact on people” “See there’s some people you can impact or raise questions with and those are the people who are willing to listen and are fence sitters. I mean there’s those who are so far gone in this way of thinking that they won’t turn back or be open to anything new, but the youth will and they don’t have to inherit the prejudices that exist in certain sections of society, and that’s who I’m targeting. I don’t know if it will have a huge impact but I believe as a society that voice needs to exist and even if one person listens and takes note then it’s all that’s needed.”

“Stop The Hatred” “The point is to reach out to people and say that we can and do live as one. You do… because in all likelihood, whatever community you belong to, you love Amitabh and Aamir, or cheered for Yuvraj and Kaif, or have sung along with Javed Akhtar’s lyrics in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice... So, why the hypocrisy?”

Check out the ads for yourself and support the campaign (which is showing in cinemas and television channels across India), by logging on at www.stopthehatred.com .
The ads are showing in 239 cinemas nationwide and on all television channels that are members of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation.

Fuad Omar