the past six months on monday saudi arabia said it would reopen some yemeni ports and airports the u.n. wants the blockade to be lifted completely. we'll have much more news for you in twenty five minutes time on be back with a roundup of all the day's top stories but that's after the stream which starts now . i am ok during the strain. on al-jazeera today with teaming up with our colleagues at witness to showcase their new film the snake charmer the documentary chance a journey of one of bollywood's biggest stars on the silver screen to social activism i really could be alive and i'll be taking your questions and comments live on the program on the snake charmer follows aamir khan on a journey through india's t.v. and film industry as he attempts to change the way indians perceive and treat women take a look. six. justices . every two to one type. some of these. healthy towards women. and to change the. big schism in their identities. where the actor and the person. but joining us now to do is director of the snake charmer and dr nick carr is assistant professor of journalism and communication at the inmarsat university of broda russian kumah is a freelance multimedia journalist. who decided as a filmmaker and journalist ladies it's great to have you here nina this film this access you had i'm just looking at comes to defeat he has twenty two point three million followers he is a huge bollywood star how did you even get close enough to him to put him in a documentary. so you know at the moment and in a week at the moment we can't hear you very well so i'm going to just work behind the scenes to come back to you and just get your audio in place let me just go to russia russia as we're looking at this documentary the snake charmer and these huge indian bollywood star when you look at it what do you see. i watched the film about twelve hours ago and one of my first reactions was why make the film. and why if you were if the idea was to look at how bollywood portray is women then it should have been a wider discussion than just looking at americans' portrayal of. americans involvement in said to me. you know it's a very specific sure which actually did not i think answer about two or four seasons so that was my first question actually why this film and why look at gender portrayal in mainstream in the cinema through the eyes of the me was that it had some extremely important points to make which i was dealing live to see being made on screen but i was actually hoping for a wider perhaps look a broader look look at agenda portrayals at the trail of women in mainstream in the cinema let me see if i can go on a con to actually answer this for you here's a little clip of him explaining the idea behind his discussion shall have a look. people make you feel good they make you love to make you cry they make you forget your stress give you a good time but that's not all that a sponsor do to procreate this person is also to bring. society to build the social fabric of the state to infuse models. well the film follows on as you saw there through the production of that television show this is a common thing both on the film and the t.v. show then of says the film is beautifully pro-trade giving a balanced view and it showcases the very real struggle space by such a venture i loved the t.v. show i cried along with it even if one family has influence it's a step in the right direction she goes on to say and there is doing much more than just empowering women he's trying to change the mindset of people who've had an upbringing where women are not seen as equals or a burden so i mean i know you're back with us you hear this praise for the film is this part of the reason why you decided to follow on her in the first place. i think the story of the film. american and all of the. work but the real story stories of women in india and in her and the power are just one start to make a change in a way. so i think it. you know one person can. you know do something about it and you know if you think oh i have a daughter let me just you know think in a. different way and. or in a way that was not the right word but it you know i think helped a lot i think that's very very important i think what kind of mind and i know there's a lot of you know in india where you know what it is doing and what. your motivation was. i think think you really wanted to make a community and i think. i think the other part in yet and you can see that. so nina follows around i'm a con as he was making his the final final series of such him a day after day which means truth alone triumphs and to show his talk show highlights some very important issues in india let me give you one example this is parveen story have a look. what if you thought of that he kept them you know set us have you thought yeah. i don't want there for harvey love i just want to fuck area. so badly that us have a psychiatrist medical muscular. that i love that he would love that i just never occurred to me. so no one else had their coffee. so. if you know i'm. so. worked on this talk show. it's difficult to separate him as an actor from the activists in that he's trying to actually help people get access to the issues helping people get access to what was he like to work with. well yes and that's kind of understandable in the sense that you know actors have this person are people relate to and then when you see him on the shore visibly in a different way you wonder what's that you know you want to try to make that connect however of you know from the real from the conversations we had and the research that went behind sure he was as he was on television as he was with us when he was you know discussing the stories of these women a lot of well i think doc went on behind about heart he cried on television and whether he did that on book was whether it was something to just get the ratings up and well that's not against the person that he cries and he. you know the research meeting that we had as well so you know as far as the busyness concerned there are two different things but i think i would just like to go back to the actual point here i think that we're having two different conversations the conversation one being the portrayal of you know with them in the cinema and that's different and i think this conversation will be different which is the portrayal of women and the issues in india you know that the story we undertook so you know i think the two different guns asian they don't mean we should kind of mix these two together. let me just bring you back in here when you started on this journey with an icon you named the film the snake charmer and a lot of people of questioned why you were doing that can you explain the title of the film. or the snake talking. what they need a mirror up in india. because it's our who want. to really you know but it's me because bollywood stars and i have to just go back to. the challenges that i'm here to made everything seem so easy and very i think you know how i feel are perfect i had an interview. and i was on very. high and you know it's making things so you know for the record and i'm fine you know. that and we you know grateful when you know you know there's something different that like this is how goes on every day. and then he got up and you know something to do with. the you know so he. and i. were in india. or another i mean that's not very well known and he doesn't really want to. so that i was raised that god had prayer and i think there are you know the full monty refers to him as an activist and actor and activist i think that's a word that he going to shy away from and he's repeatedly said that he's an entertainer not an activist and this sure was not activism but a form of entertainment that kind of showed different paths it's off india and i do you make the distinction very clearly and you know. that would make every one of us an activist in that sense he's an act so on that point i hear you there pretty and i we got this comment live on you tube brad says people need to stop looking at actors and athletes as role models another person on twitter ways and this is who says other kind is not an advocate for women but he gave respect and importance to women that is i opening for gender equality in india and at least he tried as an actor i want to bring you in here via the phone do you think the t.v. show was an eye opener for many people. i thought if any thoughts of those of the day before i could work was the entire. that that them it was a bit and there i believe that there are the four disarming the enemies i think about what they did in fact that they made a big drag and they are hints that with regard to issues like gender blind is the contradiction we play because it is i think the most i think it may be managed to scorn the station insanity is acting that the fact that we shoot it that we would like to live in fines is a weekend you should not discuss and you get how it goes because it was a popular actor they think it's going to be the show coming on the television the thing about the show is they issues that we believe i think we want in fact was that there that the fact you brought the gun the patient into the house good and i think that in fact they really are a big step of a big contribution in such an engine but i would really be skeptical about the fact that badly this sure has been a big visible in the just the change in the way in the genders always in the place leave. it again with the your guys that it's something that you have to be relieved then to be there is some kind of with the magic researched i think guided as to what they would be that popular culture highest on their gender gender perceptions by the way we could be able to find o.b.e. back if not to me gently but i know you believe that it's a big step because then you have an active make plans with the employee would by many believe he's a little more than for many weeks with him just talking about these issues that's impacting on the you know my. moore one of the things that you captured. was the pushback the protests the criticisms at one point protesters even said well you should just leave the country let's have a look at a little bit from the documentary. maybe not. but it. was. all. you needed to know what you were getting into cultural. well good. very diverse country in a difficult country to understand i think that a lot of time there and my experience being a very active. country's not a lot but i wanted to just go back to you know i thought of it. and i was going to say here with larry the art and what we are but that we have to compare what i'm going to join with what for example george clooney is doing you know any you know he was complaining. and you know you see you're not a. company. you know when you see a we're complaining or you know in this way. to stand up for women's rights and for other you know human rights in the uk i mean you have the sun has gone against you that's why we see here and there are people and politicians in our country the brief answer to the issues in the end i think this is what you know you mean you know understanding when europe and crime in india russia. yeah i just wanted to quickly add to the point of celebrity activism because that is really important there's actually very little celebrity activism if you will you know comparatively in india so if you only look at it in dorms of the really activism yes there's definitely had had kind of made inroads but then i guess the question one asks is with the might of the kind of you know it had started one of the largest television channels. as grass in bollywood actor you had extremely good research teams and production teams so with that kind of might the short you know make the kind of impact that it originally set out to is probably a question one needs to just put out there and you know i mean it's difficult to quantify i'm sure nobody has numbers and nobody can assess the kind of impact. but but it's a question one should ask so you ran maybe three or four seasons was there some kind of a policy shift did did something happen with all of the end of resources that was pumped into the show is probably a valid question to put out there. craig crawford i knew you were working on the show go ahead right yeah i think it's a valid question and i think a lot of people had that question as well what was the impact of the shore and given the resources and you know just to put it out there i think everybody all of us who are part of the team were kind of learning through the time the first second third season and learning about issues you know so we had at one person who brought that sense but you know if if most of it cannot be quantified with anecdotal but you know for example of the of the episode on child sexual abuse soon after the episode it was we got fourteen million responses from people. you know everywhere and even compiled a book of you know some of the most poignant responses that we got. and of course you know in terms of we're not going to see that you know the short changed things in india because if you haven't change and be you know it's one of the many efforts that really takes in bringing port the momentum to going to build the change whether it is about creating child sexual abuse workshops in in schools whether it is popularizing the concept of generic medicines all these kind of i think children of added to the momentum that many other factors in india did at that point in time to build conversations and pressure you know for governments to act for example even though the you know the health minister had actually at that time told me that this is a show that kind of inspired him and inspired i'm going to push him and you know do to conduct more leads on clinics that were doing sex elective abortions are going to you know crack down on those clinics so we've had anecdotal experiences but again we're not going to see that you know kind of change that. so there is one point here that several people are mentioning online and it is the industry itself whether that's media whether that's bollywood this is from nor is a former member of the stream team here right said keep in mind i'm a cancer early films glow. or fight harassment and violence against women we should critique the industry he participated in so in doing that critique this is bollywood intercity cannot comment but this one is a little bit wider this is from com loves the video comment we got on the media in general in india this is what she said if media and media people are humane generous sensitive and if they have passionate about equality justice and human life for them then they can promote gender one or two this and bring lot of positive image of women and also a positive image of men who are gentle and kind and good towards reason but if media does all eventually develop rossiter seriously then of course none of this can happen this produces for us so what do you make of that and changing the media landscape. yes i completely agree with what dr busines just said if the if the media itself is not sensitive if it can if it has people who are not gender the gender sensitive where would those who do not understand gender justice then i'm sure the kind of output that they would have would necessarily be insensitive to women and other minorities however i just wanted to quickly respond to north point about aman khan having me. sims earlier on in a scarier that then portray women in a good light i would like to point out the film ends on a note. of the film talks about dunn the which was his last release in the early sorry. not the last release but one of the last release does. and the film talks about how he portrays. portrayal of of them and then has changed in the middle but you know them going also had some extremely valid criticism coming from feminists are saying that it was talking about. the girls from a very patriarchal perspective the father who can play is actually bush his younger daughters into things that they did not really want to do so it's not just his it's not it's not just only a part of his career where he has been accused of not being very sensitive to the portrayal of women it's also much much recently having been there was two thousand and sixteen so. and it was much after the. snake so it's even until much recently and the snake democrats a was a very important point where in one of his. one of his most famous film studio talks about rape in a very kind of a lighthearted almost joking way in a particular scene so i guess i guess i'm a imus critics would say that he. probably. you know continues to portray characters which fall into the larger. patriarchy and its audience a little clip from. you can see the genesis where the idea came from for a dog or dog was a film about female wrestlers a little. idea about what the plot but where the idea came from have a look. if you think your comment please comment about gold medalists and. wrestling with you will be up and you're going. to litigate a lot of. the let it get you off a little. harder you're not allowed. to call them. champions many. mahmoud you know this guy well you're obviously but you're going. to ask. the action the whole journal over the road rather than a road longer matter than it we're going to get a lot of what i just did but i wanted a closer look not again when you are the source of. it when i get the other was a little deeper than they were isn't it a little bit but i want to go and we want to. thank you. so good moment from the witness documentary coming online and shown on al-jazeera on the snake charmer have a look here my laptop this is where you can see it online. a couple of comments too in this conversation the chat if you on you tube live says i agree that aamir khan brought the conversation to homes where it can become an open conversation instead of one held in private among women and a few men and one other comment from twitter this person says i am so empowered as a man by honor konstanz against an equal gender norms but i can't wait to see the film nina i need to. thank you very much for being in this conversation debating and discussing cod and also need your documentary thanks for sharing that with us and for joining us on the stream today this conversation continues always online. that's what. the at. the end. the new era in television news. and those insights into toss to do things in secret that are on hold we had actual victims who had survived torture detention and saying this was the cause of my arrest if you could. just stay with what we do have stood by this conviction that everyone has a deep reservoir of common going to have if you give them the opportunity and wonderful thing stopped to look at the actual distance there's at least twenty thousand or hinder refugees who live here we badly need at this moment near the ship until president hosni mubarak has resigned and donald trump is going to be the next president retaliation riverbanks how they got to go back she finally canisters of gas i just need to do that best to prevent the behavior getting anyway let's give her a call that. i have no power. at this time and how does era. provoking debate challenging the established law and every single one of the three and a half thousand people who was killed with a drug dealer yes join mehdi has sung for up front of this time on al-jazeera. hello i'm maryam namazie in london here your top stories now on al-jazeera.

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