Director Vijayeta Kumar’s Kicking Balls recently premiered on Prasar Bharti’s newly launched OTT platform, Waves. But releasing the documentary – which explores how certain Rajasthan villages are combating child marriage by training girls in football – was tough despite Oscar winner Guneet Monga Kapoor backing it, says the director. It all started in 2018 when Kumar saw a football camp in Ajmer while passing by her school one day. “I saw many girls playing football. I was impressed by the NGO Mahila Jan Adhikar  working with these girls. I pitched the docu’s concept to Guneet; this was when she had just won the Oscar for Period: End of Sentence [2018]. Then Ashwini [Yardi, producer] came on board because she champions this cause. I was lucky funding-wise, but after that, it was very hard to get [it released] despite Guneet’s Oscar and all the connections. The mainstream platforms didn’t want documentaries,” she recalls.

(From left) Guneet Monga Kapoor and  Vijayeta Kumar