Staines, Dara to be captured on celluloid

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October 30, 2003 15:24 IST

Gladys Staines has not decided whether she will permit the making of a film on her slain husband, missionary Graham Stuart Staines.

"I have to see the script and I have not yet given anyone the formal permission for the making of the film," she told PTI over phone from her home in Baripada, Orissa.

The Graham Staines Case: The Full Coverage

Mumbai-based filmmaker Sunil Agnihotri has said he is keen to do the film, which will be called The Murder of a Missionary; the shooting is expected to start in February 2004.

Gladys said she had met Agnihotri in Mumbai a year ago. "He had contacted me recently," she said.

Staines, who worked among leprosy-afflicted people in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district for 35 years, was burnt alive along with his two sons, Philip and Timothy, on January 22, 1999, at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district.

Meanwhile, another film on the life of Dara Singh, the main accused in the Staines case who was sentenced to death by a trial court recently, is being planned, Bajrang Dal sources said.

Twelve others were also convicted in the case and were sentenced to life imprisonment.

The film will be titled Dara, The Hero and the script is being readied, Bajrang Dal's Orissa convenor Subash Chouhan told PTI from Sambalpur.

The Sanskrutik Chetana Manch will produce the film, he said.

"We have requested the producers to shoot the film in the hilly terrain of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts of Orissa," he said, adding, "we hope the film is completed by April next year."

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