Rani Mukerji Interviews Maharashtra’s Lady Super-Cop Archana Tyagi Ahead Of Mardaani 2’s Release: Deets Inside

Rani Mukerji’s upcoming film, Mardaani 2, sees her reprising the role of the fearless and committed Superintendent of Police, Shivani Shivaji Roy. The edge-of-the-seat thriller will see Rani in a race against time to capture a brutal serial rapist who systematically targets women. Mardaani 2 focuses on the rise in violent crimes by juveniles in India and has sparked a conversation on the threat this poses on young girls. Rani has been promoting the film actively and spreading the message of the film across India. Recently, the actress met supercop Archana Tyagi, Additional Director General of Police & Chief of Maharashtra S.R.P.F, to ask her to shed some light on the issue of rise in crimes committed by juveniles.

A: Archana – See, initially I didn't have any such plan of joining the police force, let me be very frank with you. I belong to a family of academicians. My parents are both into teaching department. So, I was also inclined towards teaching and I was a regular lecturer also. That's a very noble profession but somehow, I was not meant to be a lecturer throughout my life. So I went to JNU after finishing my Masters in Economics and I did my M. Phil there. JNU is a place where students from all over the country are there. Some are doing research and most of them are preparing for the UPSC examination, through which you get IAS and IPS officers. So I think that keeda… you know… it caught me there. I started preparing for that and in that process even I got exposed to so many things. I had written IAS and IPS because IAS is supposed to be the best service in the country. I got into the police service. Then I actually started thinking ki main police mein kya karungi? And you know … you suddenly realize that maybe I was meant for the service. That's why I got selected. You know everything, woh boltein hai naa, in-universe, comes around to fulfil everything. Even if at the back of your mind….

A: Archana – Yes.

A: Don’t be complacent. One thing is that we think ki bachaa hai, you know, young hai toh you know, he is not capable of crimes. Complacency is not to be there. For women and the girls also they have to be alert all the time. We can’t say ki tum yeh kapde mat pehno, ya woh mat pehno. We can't say that, because women-girls have to be out and you know a workplace and all these things… But yes, alertness is has to be there. You must get the signals. Women have you know that kind of you know say, they have that female instinct… use that, that should remain alive. See, we are women, we are not men. So hum agar hai female to humko apna you know, we have some sensibilities which we must be aware of. Aadmi Ban ke Kya karenge? That's not the point at all. We are raising our girl child to become you know to go out in the world and prove themselves but we are not training our male child to handle those women. That is what the problem is.

Archana – So, once that happens at the family level, I think we will have more sensitive men in society. And it will take some time. I think some beginning has been made but this aggression also needs to be handled, which I find is growing…

Archana – Nahin, aisa answer toh koi nahin… I have been talking to them for few years now, but what I would (say)… If you look at the data, which I am not having it right now, it is not as if these kinds of crimes are being committed by poor people or those who are unemployed or those who have nothing you know, social strata lower se aa haye hai aisa bhi nahin hai… You will find these kinds of crimes from among those people who are also very affluent, who have everything in the world. They are running their industrial houses but still getting into this kind of a thing. So ultimately one has to start from the family only, and you raise your male child to be sensitive towards women. Police will do its job, the government will do its job. You can't have one policeman per person. 125 crore policemen toh nahin kar saktey hai na? So that is very, very important.

Meanwhile, Mardaani 2 has been produced by Aditya Chopra and is slated to hit the big screens on December 13, 2019.

image source: YRF PR