Now, a Hindi film on the theme of farmer suicides

Hold your breath: forthcoming film Kissan has drawn its storyline from the true and tragic instances of farmer suicides in the states of Haryana and Punjab.

The film will also probe how the expansion of cities in and around the national capital region is wiping out farm lands and causing concern for farmers who mostly sell their lands to business houses so that multiplexes, malls, and huge housing projects can be built.

"It is a very honest film and has things which (actor) Sohail (Khan) saw up close through his own eyes while shooting in and around Delhi," said actress Dia Mirza, who stars in this small-budget production with Jackie Shroff, Sohail and Arbaaz Khan. "It deals with several issues like farmer suicides and how expansion of city spaces is slowly seeing reduction of fertile agricultural land as malls and housing complexes are taking their place. Newspaper stories about such tragic instances have also inspired the plot."

Almost half of India's estimated 100 million farming families are in debt and this cycle has so far killed over 1,50,000 farmers since 1997.

The debt trap from local moneylenders has seen many farmers lose their land or even force their wives to become prostitutes. The farm sector supports 60% of over one billion mouths but contributes to only one-fifth of the gross domestic product.

"The film also traces how education can be a bane for a farmer," said Mirza. "The story shows how a member from a farming family goes to the city for education, becomes materialistic and loses basic human values, and how this leads to trouble in the family."