Deb Medhekar’s Bioscopewala sheds light on Burkha boxing which is still practiced in slums of Kolkata by poor women, who wants to escape poverty and seek empowerment through boxing. If the woman makes it to the district or state level they get a chance at government job.
Tisca Chopra, who will be seen playing a poignant role of Wahida in Deb Medhekar’s Bioscopewala, says it was shocking to learn that women were used in same way as cocks are used in cock fights.
Speaking about it, she says, “I actually heard about it several years ago from a friend in Kolkata who had mentioned it in passing. And when Deb Medhekar (the director of Bioscopewala) brought it up in the context of the film, we spoke about it at length. Then I researched it extensively. It was shocking to me that women were used much in the same way as cocks are used in cock fights; men bet on them and the women often used it as a way to stave off poverty.”
