Rajesh Touchriver is a filmmaker who believes in the importance of responsible social messaging in cinema, as evident in his 2013 film Naa Bangaaru Talli. The same applies to his Hindi drama Dahini - The Witch, which was screened at the 2025 Indian Film Festival of Sydney. The film takes an immersive deep dive into the evil practice of witch hunting in Odisha. It follows a group of villagers in pursuit of a woman whom they believe is a witch. Interestingly, in a conversation with CE, Rajesh reveals that most actors in the film hail from a village in Odisha and that they believe in the existence of witches. Rajesh reveals, “While we were shooting the film, two people became victims of witch hunting in the nearby districts. Even the cops believe in this practice. In fact, in the police headquarters in Kendujhar, the place of Odisha's Chief Minister, there is a Dahini statue featuring the name of each witch hunting victim.”
Dahini has some characters with potentially Shakespearean-level layers to them, but the film settles for a blunt and straightforward take on witch hunting without any narrative complexity. However, Rajesh discloses that this is a deliberate narrative choice to help ensure that the film's message reaches maximum people without any dilution. “These crimes take place in many states, such as Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. With the film, we try to show the facts of the matter, focussing on how the perpetrators mark and trap the victims and stamp their authority over the latter. It is best to tell the story in a direct way, without twists and turns, for such a film to reach a wider audience.”
The filmmaker discloses that casteism exists in the region where the film is set and that the aforesaid superstitious practice is also there because of too much belief in religion. The privileged class in the village keeps the Dalits separated by at least one kilometre from the place. “A person representing the government pedals a bicycle around the village and warns the locals of evil doings, such as witch hunting. However, when villagers assemble for a festival every week, the place becomes a hotbed of superstition. This happens due to excessive belief in the higher powers,” he says, adding, “The film does not say that it is wrong to have such beliefs, but it becomes easy for miscreants to blindfold zealots.”
Oddly enough, even the film’s co-producer ran away from the set due to the same sense of extremism. “The Odia co-producer ran away for fear of witches. He is a man who wears amulets carrying stones and practices pooja against witch hunting. He was scared about whether witches would attack him,” Rajesh quips.
On the other hand, Dahini - The Witch producer Sunitha Krishnan and Rajesh went to Assam for a screening to help raise awareness about the evil practice in the state. “Assam has a high number of Ojhas (witch doctors). Mayang is like a hotspot of witch hunting. There, they brought an anti-witch-hunting law after watching the film. When we screened the film there, it resonated with many women who escaped from the clutches of Ojhas. They asked us, ‘How did you learn about our stories?’” According to its maker, these are the biggest achievements of the film.
The filmmaker reveals that the element that Ojhas use to lure the victims is either a piece of property or a bait for sex. “They mark a woman as a witch and gradually inject the notion that she is one into the minds of the villagers. This is how they take advantage of common people.”
Dahini - The Witch features Shiva and Satya star JD Chakravarthy as a social activist who works for an NGO. Interestingly, the actor has difficulty walking in the film, which in a way serves as a metaphor for the long and obtrusive road to reformation. However, Rajesh reveals that Chakravarthy picked up an injury during the production of another film after he signed up for Dahini. “I could not find another actor just days before filming his portions. JD is a good friend of mine and he asked me, ‘How can I work for you in this state?’ I told him that we would use his walking problem as a character trait in the film.”
Rajesh is best known for his National Award winning film Naa Bangaaru Talli, which also takes on the social evil of human trafficking. When probed about which of the concepts between witch hunting and human trafficking is more challenging to give a cinematic treatment, he says that the challenge lies in the depiction of the subject matter itself. Rajesh explains, “With a film such as Naa Bangaaru Talli, the key is to portray sex trade without any nudity so that the film reaches as many people as possible, including all members of a family. Children should also learn about it.” The filmmaker continues, “On the other hand, Dahini only shows a small portion of the reality of the situation, because it is way more brutal and we wanted maximum reach for the film.”
According to Rajesh, only a handful of filmmakers in India make movies revolving around real-world subjects without excessive commercialisation. He shares that Sai Dharam Tej’s Virupaksha espouses the wrong nation that witches exist in the real world. “When a star is part of such a commercial film, most of their fans will take it literally and propagate the myth. Stars must be careful while committing films that support social evils, because many people do not regard such stories as fictional. Hence, they must also have social cognizance and responsibility.”