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Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra builds 800 lavatories in 4 years 

Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra whose upcoming film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha which throws spotlight on the lack of toilets in rural…

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra builds 800 lavatories in 4 years 

Filmmaker Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra

Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra whose upcoming film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha which throws spotlight on the lack of toilets in rural India, is actually building hundreds of lavatories in the slums where he's busy shooting.

Mehra, who began filming his next, Mere Pyare Prime Minister, in a Ghatkopar slum in Mumbai, has now got a no-objection certificate from the city's civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), to build 20 toilets there, including five separate toilets for men and women.

Known for making critically acclaimed films like 'Rang De Basanti' and 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag', Rakeysh has been collaborating with an NGO, 'Yuva Unstoppable', for the last four years to transform slums by building toilets.

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 “We don't just build toilets and walk away but we also make sure the locals maintain them. We've been having meetings with slum-dwellers and corporators of the area, urging them to put one rupee in the donation box so that the community workers can be given their dues…"

"The new toilets are as good as the ones in private buildings, with proper pipelines and extensions with tips where they can get clean, drinking water,“ informs Mehra who after seeing Gandhi's model toilets at the Sabarmati Ashram was motivated to pick up this cause and has so far built over 800 toilets. 

“The slum dwellers have TV sets and mobile phones but no toilets and during the monsoons are forced to defecate on the railway tracks. I remember reading a Mirror story about a woman who got run over while defecating on the tracks and wondered, is a toilet worth losing your life over?“ he added.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is now shooting at a slum settlement behind the Powai lake, where the dwellers defecate in the open. New toilets will be built here too.  

“The area gets water for just 30-45 minutes a day. We are planning to build adequate toilets in this area too,“ he says, admitting that while the 'Maximum City' has been absorbing immigrants like a sponge, its infrastructure hasn't grown at the same pace. 

Talking about his film, 'Mere Pyare Prime Minister', Mehra said it revolves around four kids living in a Mumbai slum. One of them wants to build a toilet for his single mother and makes an appeal to the Prime Minister. 

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