Meet Pankaj Shukla, the man who documents India’s self-sustainable villages

By Anurag Paul, News Gram

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves" said, William Shakespeare. This statement holds real for a person born in a small town Unnao, near Uttar Pradesh.

The Indian soil has contributed many talents to the world. Mr Pankaj Shukla is one of them. Pankaj Shukla was born on 3Oth December, 1966. Son of a College Lecturer, who started his career with a government job as Mess- Cum- Estate Manager at a young age of 21.

Mr Shukla could not work in the government sector for long as the government machinery was full of corruption, he raised his voice against the system for years, but it didn't reach the deaf ears of the old system. With no option left in hand, he resigned from his well paid government job in the year 1991 and jumped into the field of journalism to work as a Trainee Journalist in a Hindi daily, "Amar Ujala".

His fight against prevailing corruption in the society is still alive. His documentary film in Hindi, "Swaraj Mumkin Hai" is soon going to be released. But the documentary will not be screened in film festivals or big screen to earn a handsome amount from the screening.

When asked about his new documentary, Pankaj Shukla told NewsGram that his upcoming documentary will be based on a self-sustainable village in Baghuvar Village of Madhya Pradesh which has a lesson for all the remote villages in the country. The shooting of the documentary started in the first week of September, 2014 and is still under production.

Noted Journalist, Mr Ravish Kumar from NDTV is the anchor of the documentary. "His native way of presenting the story will be an asset for the documentary" Mr Shukla told NewsGram.

"People generally think that the concept of Swaraj propagated by Mahatma Gandhi is not practical in the modern set-up. Our documentary will make people think at least once that it's possible observing the example set up by the common villagers living in a small corner of Madya Pradesh." Mr Shukla told this writer.