The critically acclaimed film, Parzania, based on the Godhra riots will be released in Indian theatres on January 26. Rahul Dholakia, the Los Angeles-based Gujarati film-maker, said he would release the film in four metros — Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai — on Republic Day. “I know many people walk out of my film saying it’s one-sided but I am quite used to it by now,’’ he said.

Parzania, screened for a select audience on Minority Rights Day in Delhi, is the real life story of a middle-class Parsi family that loses its 10-year-old son in the riots. Dholakia says he and the Parsi family had taken the same flight from the US to India just a few days before the riots. “I know how Azar’s father still keeps searching for his son. He can no longer afford a cell phone but still continues to cling to his old number lest he misses the call from someone who has found Azar,’’ Dholakia says.

The film, featuring Naseerudin Shah and Sarika, is an emphatic statement on complicity of the Gujarat government in engineering the anti-Muslim riots after 54 Hindus were burnt alive in a Godhra train. The low budget film took Dholakia one year of research and most actors worked for free. Dholakia is aware of the extreme reactions his film is likely to evoke among cinegoers. “My own family did not approve my making this film ... But I told them that I am also a Gujarati and I feel strongly about the riots.’’

... contd.