Shiney Ahuja’s 2011 Rape Case The Inspire Akshaye Khanna's Section 375 Reveals The Film's Writer

The crime drama Section 375 that stars Akshaye Khanna and Richa Chaddha released last week and it was showered with praises for its bold content and some power-packed performances. All and sundry have appreciated the film and business-wise too the film is working wonders.

But did you know whose life story was the film inspired from?

Well, the film was based on Gangster actor Shiney Ahuja’s rape case!

Yes, that’s right. In the year 2011, actor Shiney Ahuja was convicted for raping his maid. He was sentenced to seven years of jail by the sessions court, before being out on bail from the High Court. The writer of the film Section 375, Manish Gupta revealed that he was deeply affected by Shiney's rape case, and that is what made him make this film.

In a conversation with The Quint, Manish revealed, “It is absolutely inspired by the Shiney Ahuja case because I knew Shiney personally. This was in 2009. In 2009, I was supposed to do a film with Shiney. It was supposed to be a film on the gangster Charles Sobhraj. So I used to visit Shiney at his residence in Oshiwara and his wife Anupam,"

The writer further elaborated, “She was his manager, so I used to interact with her. And now there was this maid, a very young maid in the house. She used to serve me water etc. One evening, I just heard that Shiney has been arrested for raping that girl. I was shocked. I rushed to the police station - the Oshiwara police station."

The report further goes on to state that Maniesh revealed he met with the DCP and he had confirmed intercourse between Shiney and the maid, but they were not sure if it was consensual or rape. 

The report also states that Maniesh revealed how Shiney’s wife believed that the DNA reports could be tampered with and how she lamented about the case and its negative effect on their family. “His career was ruined, he spent four to five months in jail and after he came out, he was still tainted. Imagine if you are accused of a crime like rape, nobody will want to associate with you. Imagine the embarrassment within the family. His whole life was ruined, his career was ruined." 

He went on to state that he was baffled with the case, however, there were many other references for him to make the film, “Now I didn't know what to believe. On one side was Anupam who is a woman and her husband has been accused of rape. Her life is devastated even if it was consensual sex. On the other hand, there is this girl who has been raped, exploited so it was rather disturbing for me. And that's how the germ of the movie came. But yes, there are other similar cases to that of Shiney's that were source material for me."