On Jyotirao Phule’s 195th birth anniversary yesterday, director Ananth Mahadevan announced Phule, a biopic on the 19th century social activist. The poster sees Pratik Gandhi of Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story fame as the reformer who, along with wife Savitribai Phule, had championed women’s education. “Jyotirao and his wife formed the Satyashodhak Samaj to look after women who were sexually abused or abandoned. He was the first person in India to be given the title of Mahatma [by social activist Vithalrao Krishnaji Vandekar]. He educated his wife when he learnt about her interest in reading. He understood that if she educated herself and became a teacher, it would serve his mission of having women teachers for young girls,” says Mahadevan.

Ananth Mahadevan