Real-life IPS officer Simala Prasad, who gracefully follows her passion for acting, will be seen in The Narmada Story. The Pioneer quickly made a call to her over an exclusive chat as she opened up about portraying an investigative officer in the film and also spoke of the portrayal of the police force in cinemas.
Tejal Sinha
Whether it’s cult classic cop dramas or new-age cop flicks with comic dialogue, Bollywood has successfully made the most of the demographic’s preference for cop dramas. But how many have uncovered the veracity of the struggles of the cops, especially the women in the force?
Unlike the other cop dramas dominated by superstars, a true supercop has now made her mark on the world. Simala Prasad, a real-life IPS officer from MP, portrays the investigating officer in the newly completed thriller film, The Narmada Story.
According to the makers, the film is based on true life incidents, defying the pattern of Bollywood’s larger-than-life masala movies. This distinct technique lays the groundwork for a picture that will have viewers on the edge of their seats.
So without further ado, The Pioneer rang a call to the police officer to gather more insights about the films and get onboard. She is also the daughter of Padmashri awardee Mehrunnisa Parvez and Dr. Bhagirath Prasad, a IAS officer from the 1975 batch. She was never forced to take up any of the fields that her parents were in. “We are here serving people and making the place we are a better place to live,” begins the real-life IPS officer on an exclusive note.
“However, there are certain aspects we feel as a civil servant; there are limitations. Our society has a stereotypical mindset that encourages a person to indulge in criminal activity. I feel cinema is a big medium because even an illiterate person can watch it without being restricted to a particular audience. The message a film wants to give is taken in a big way.”
Well, moving ahead, as we talk of The Narmada Story, initially, as she got to know that she was going to play the lead role in the film alongside Raghubir Yadav and Mukesh Tiwari, among the rest, she was certainly a little nervous and was not sure if she’d be able to deliver it or not. “Of course in real life, I’m a police officer, but in the film, I’m playing a sub-inspector, a different rank of an officer, which is low from my real-life rank. We are portraying all the traumas that the person goes through and what all the mental baggage is carrying when anyone joins the service. She has to prove herself; she has to come out of it,” she says.
Her character is a small-town girl who is of the mindset that being in the police force is a very powerful position and that it’s very important to be in uniform. Irrespective of her family constraints, like her father not being willing to send her into the police force, she has a negative mindset about the police, but she wants to be in the police. “As she gets into the forces, she faces a lot of issues, and with the day-to-day work that she tries to manage, the story unfolds. She overcomes the obstacles, and I feel the film shows solutions to certain things that the police are facing,” further shares the IPS officer and actor.
The Narmada Story marks her third collaboration with the director. Both her previous films also highlighted some important messages. Her mother and director, both of them writers, led her to her passion for acting. “I wanted to be a part of this project highlighting a very important aspect of police, and as a police person, we want people to see police in a positive light. For the public, the police are like a punching bag! So far, how police have been portrayed in maybe the cop universe in Bollywood is very larger-than-life, and the issues they show are one person fighting with 20 people or criminals. It is like a superhero in a uniform. This film aims to highlight the real issues the police are facing that even the public needs to be aware of.”
Speaking of managing her passion and her duty, she highlights, “I don’t indulge in recreational activities like going on vacation, and so for me, acting is just like a hobby that I pursue. It’s less management on my part and more management on Zaigham Ji’s part in this case. I was not called for any reading sessions or any look tests. It was the team that came over, and we had discussions over the script and my role. The schedule was also such that I could easily manage.”
When the shooting began, she revealed that she did not feel as if she was working with them for the first time. However, there were certain limitations for her due to her job, and she couldn’t afford to be present in the reading session. So, it was on the sets that she got to interact with the NSD grads and people who are polished in their work. It was all about having a learning experience for her.
The film beautifully portrays all the hardships a person has to go through, especially in a rural police station. Moreover, she shares that as a woman in the force, she goes through constraints, be it the infrastructure or the stereotypical mindset of the colleague, because though many women are joining the forces, she feels there’s still a long journey ahead.
“The film is thus beautifully portraying these small issues. I feel it was an eye-opener for me also because one of the things the film highlights is about times when washrooms were not available for women in the police stations. On the other hand, she has family issues and attends regular phone calls. Like I said, I am playing a sub-inspector, and there’s another constable also in the police station. I haven’t seen any of the films highlighting these issues because police are either portrayed in a negative light in Bollywood or portrayed as a superhero who can give solutions to each and every problem, who can jump from anywhere or appear anytime when anyone is in distress.”
Though there’s a long way for women police officers to go, these films, she shares, are going to change the stereotypical mindsets of the people that have been formed over the years.
