Anyone who’s been to college, or even to a boarding school, has witnessed ragging. Sometimes, what begins as banter turns into something altogether ugly when ragging is taken to an extreme. Director Manish Gupta’s film Hostel tackles this theme.
It is a film about a student played by Vatsal Seth who enters a notorious hostel and is ragged by his seniors. It’s not just about one incident but a string of incidents. It shows how students are tortured and harassed in the name of ragging.
Hostel stars Tulip Joshi as Seth’s love interest. Mukesh Tiwari plays a supporting role.
Director Manish Gupta, known for writing hard-hitting scripts like Sarkar and The Stoneman Murders, says about Hostel: “There are many suicides that occur in Indian hostels due to ragging wherein students are beaten up, stripped, paraded naked, starved, tortured, molested and even raped by their seniors. Since victims of ragging find it humiliating to report sexual abuse to their parents or others, most ragging-related crimes go unreported. HOSTEL deals with the serious issue of ragging and through this film I want to show the world what actually a victim of ragging goes through.”
The film has music by Virag Mishra.
‘Hostel’ will release on January 14.
