Anurag Kashyap, Nikkhil Advani, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vasan Bala-backed Dug Dug locks May 8 India release

Filmmaker Ritwik Pareek’s comedy mystery satire Dug Dug is set to release in Indian theatres on May 8 following a widely appreciated run across international film festivals. The film now has the backing of filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Nikkhil Advani, Vikramaditya Motwane and Vasan Bala, who have come on board as executive producers ahead of its India release. Inspired by true events, Dug Dug follows a strange development in a village where a deceased man’s motorbike begins to be worshipped after locals believe it can grant wishes if devotees pray to it and offer alcohol. As reports of wishes being fulfilled spread, the belief gradually turns into a full-fledged commercialised religion. The feature is produced by Bottle Rocket Pictures, led by Prerna Pareek and Ritwik Pareek, and will be released theatrically in India in association with Ranjan Singh’s Flip Films. Speaking about the film, Anurag Kashyap said, “I was blown away by Dug Dug, its storytelling, cinematography and music. It ...

‘It has become a sort of silver bullet’: why are rap lyrics being put on trial?

In compelling documentary As We Speak, a controversial legal practice that uses rap lyrics to secure convictions is explored

In September 2001, McKinley Phipps Jr, also known as the rapper Mac, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for manslaughter. It had been a year and a half since gunfire erupted outside a club where he was slated to perform in Slidell, Louisiana, resulting in the death of 19-year-old Barron Victor Jr. Phipps, then 22, maintained his innocence, and the case against him was weak – there was no gun linking him to the crime, several witnesses recanted their testimony and another person confessed to pulling the trigger. And yet, prosecutors had their trump card: Mac, a former New Orleans rap prodigy who began releasing music at the age of 13, had rapped about murder.

“Murder, murder, kill, kill”, Phipps recites in As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial, a new documentary on the criminalization of rap lyrics. Prosecutors spliced that line with one from a different song – “Pull the trigger, put a bullet in your head” – to create the portrait of a killer; Mac’s art was the evidence that DNA, solid confessions, or a missing weapon couldn’t provide. An all-white jury bought it. Phipps served over 21 years in prison before being granted clemency in 2021.

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