Naman Saraiya: Why I see a conman when I see a godman

It took director Naman Saraiya over a year to make My Daughter Joined a Cult The making of the threeepisode docuseries on godman Nithyananda was no easy feat mdash from sifting through numerous hours of content to interviewing survivors The filmmaker says the arduous journey made him seek therapy ldquoMy therapist was glad when she finally saw my documentaryrsquos hoardings all over the cityrdquo smiles Saraiya as he gives a lowdown on all that went into the making of the discovery documentary that traces the rise and fall of the godman and his alleged rape casesEdited excerpts from the interviewHow did you first learn about the selfproclaimed godman NithyanandaIt was through the memes on the Internet I remember being aware of him when the sex tape was leaked in 2010 I was in college then and we discussed it during media ethics class The documentary was not my idea I was brought on board to steer this documentary through the studio Vice It was at the development and research stage when the show was picked up by the network Then I was presented with an overall idea and the showrsquos name I am a big fan of personal narrative documentaries but I couldnrsquot employ that here because I wasnrsquot a part of the ashram or the cultSelfproclaimed godman NithyanandaWhat was your first impression of himI am a fairly practical person When I see godmen I believe he will con somebody in the garb of religion and spirituality But when you are making a film or a series you have to shed your personal ideas and be objective When you are speaking to an exdevotee or a survivor you cannot bring your own judgment of this man you have to hear it from the personrsquos point of view I remember having a conversation with an exdevotee who said so many people benefitted from his teachings and the social service he did for the villages around his ashram I believe just because a man does good to 5000 doesnrsquot mean he has not affected 50 people That harm caused to 50 people is greater than the benefit caused to 5000 Itrsquos good to be sceptical of anybody commodifying anything that shouldnrsquot be commodifiedWhy do you think Indian authorities have not managed to catch up with him yetI feel there is some support behind him or how was he able to escape There are many theories and we have addressed them in the documentary He escaped just before the rape trials were about to begin which indicates he had prior information He was charged between late 2010 and 2012 when Aarthi Rao came out and spoke on a television channel It was incredibly brave of herDo you feel the authorities didnrsquot respond in timeNo even if they did it was probably a handinglove situation We heard crazy stories about how he was injecting himself with oestrogen to prove that his testosterone levels were low You cannot publish it in the documentary because it needs to be verified by various sources I cannot employ immoral tactics to gain information There was also the fear of a defamation case on us We had to tread carefullyWhat were some of the challenges you faced while making this seriesMost documentaries on popular cults and serial killers are made when the person is caught or dead Then all records are made available from the case files to court records Here while some cases were dismissed the rape trial is pending because he has not shown up The hullabaloo about him going missing started again in 2019 when Janardhan Sharma complained about how he was not allowed to meet his children who were Nithyanandarsquos devotees This is what we began the documentary withI was on board the project since MarchApril last year I had a solid team led by Sonakshi Pandit who had earlier worked on several documentaries including the Talwar documentary Poorvi Priya who has just graduated from TISS helped with the archival research My associate director Shashank Rajaram speaks Tamil and we put together a team that spoke different languages We spent the first three months researching and writing The writing process helped us distill this vast volume of information mdash from his personality to his growth from his crimes to his modus operandi Navigating the legal loopholes in terms of what can and cannot be said was challengingDid you face any opposition from Nithyanandarsquos followersNo I donrsquot think they had any idea at all That said there have been ridiculous campaigns online since this documentary was launched When the platform put up their first tweet about the documentary the usual trolling began Many asked why are you not making documentaries about other religions But during the making we kept a low profile and only spoke to people whom we could absolutely trust Our net was cast wide mdash you may have seen 15 people on camera but in actuality we spoke to 30 people Nithyananda is so twisted he may be more than happy that there is a documentary about himIf you could talk to Nithyananda what would you ask himI would never talk to him He is the kind of person who would perhaps take the best parts of different sermons and make his own version of it He had lost his way too soon Power corrupts the more followers you have the more you get drunk on power It would be impossible to have an honest conversation with him because such people would gaslight youFinally which theory do you believe mdash that he is raking in money by conducting online sessions with a chroma background or that he has actually built a KailasaHe has escaped from India for sure He had enough time and resources to get out and enough people within his cult to make it happen I donrsquot know how he is staying afloat With the help of NRIs I suppose Considering the amount of gold reserve he has I am sure he can get through another few years