Working on ‘Lucknow Central’ wasn’t like working on any other Bollywood film for Diana Penty, who plays the role of NGO worker Gayatri Kashyap, who helps jail inmates to form a band. The actress says that apart from referring to the research by director Ranjit Tiwari, she read a lot on the topic.
“About 80% of criminals in jails are one-time offenders, they have the potential to come out of jail with a change and live a good life after that. I did my own research, I spoke to some people about what happens in jail. Nikkhil Advani’s wife Suparna Gupta deals with juveniles and undertrials in custody and my character in the film also deals with people who are already convicted – what the two have in common is that reformation is their sole aim. Speaking to her was a lot of help.
We visited some prisons while working on this film and it was inspiring to see that reformation is given so much importance in our prisons.”