India's Daughter: Did Leslee Udwin shoot on a tourist Visa?

Investigators probing the documentary, "India's Daughter," have found more discrepancies. After finding that the documentary was originally sold as Delhi the Rape Capital of the World, investigators are now checking the visa details of Leslee Udwin the maker of the documentary.

While a documentary film maker is granted a visa only for 6 months as per the rule, how did she claim that he had spent two years in the making of the film, investigators have sought to know.

Visa trouble

An officer associated with the probe tells OneIndia that they are digging into the basics of the case. Right from the time she filed the application to the screening of the documentary are under the scanner.

Prima facie it appears that she had violated a lot of rules. She claims to have spent two years in India making the film, but visa rules state that a documentary film maker who is given a journalist's visa can stay only for 6 months and the same would need to be renewed from time to time.

There is no record to show a renewal and hence we suspect that she could have been on a tourist visa. Shooting a documentary on a tourist visa is not permissible under law.

The investigators say that Udwin has not replied to any messages that they have sent. We need answers and she has to tell us how the entire procedure was followed or not followed, the officer also informed.

The tourist visa scam

Investigators say that normally documentary film makers apply for a tourist visa to India. They then hire an Indian production unit or house and tell them to shoot the documentary.

The foreign documentary makers normally take this route as they feel that the Indian houses are given more benefits when compared to them. In this case, it was only an Indian media house that can interview inmates in a jail and this permission is not granted to foreign film makers.

In this case too Udwin had taken the services of an Indian production house. Although the entire film was shot with the help of the Indian production house, the problem occurred when the name of that particular house was taken off the credits.

This could have been done deliberately an officer points out. She had originally sold the film not as India's daughter but as Delhi the Rape Capital of the World.

The title under which the film was sold draws more attention and could have enhanced funding which we believe she has got despite telling the Indian government that she does not propose to use the material for commercial purposes.

Undertaking not honoured

The probe has also found that the undertaking given by Udwin was not honoured. The rule mandates that she should give an undertaking to the Ministry of External Affairs stating that she will need to show the entire film before releasing it.

However the probe has found that despite such an undertaking being given the film was not shown to a representative of the MEA. The MEA needs to view the film and suggest cuts if there is any material that is objectioble in nature.

Moreover the rule also states that two weeks prior to the release of the film the same shall be shown to the MEA representative. However in the case of Udwin it was found that she had not shown the MEA representative the film and neither had she provided the unedited raw footage to the Tihar jail authorities.