In a first of its kind initiative, Viacom18 has adopted Daughters of Mother India, the award winning documentary that explores the aftermath of the Nirbhaya rape incident in 2012.

Produced by Academy Award winner Maryann Deleo and directed by National Award winner Vibha Bakshi, Daughters of Mother India is a 45 minutes documentary that explores the effect of Nirbhaya’s brutal gang rape on the collective psyche of India. The documentary has been adopted as a training film by the Indian police academy and various education institutes in India, to sensitize on treating women with respect.

Recognizing media as a powerful tool for propagating social behavioral change, Mr. Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO said, “Viacom 18 takes pride in building an ecosystem of relevant and impactful content creators, platforms and communities. Media firms are best placed to act as force multipliers in India’s endeavour to bring about women empowerment. It is also important for us to be objective and ensure that all sides of a story are shared. ‘Daughters of Mother India’ does this is many ways: it is objective, compelling and thought provoking. Kudos to the team. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot more of this kind of content coming into the mainstream. And hopefully, we as a company and as an industry, will continue propagating this message of change.”

Filmmaker Vibha Bakshi commented, “Viacom 18 is not just a media company. It’s clearly a disrupter. When we approached Viacom 18 with the proposition of screening a documentary they instantly understood. They were sensitive to the immediate need to raise awareness and take responsibility as a carrier of content to bring about social behavioral change. It’s the media that plays an important role in shaping minds and mindsets and can deliver huge on ground impact in bringing mass awareness for the critical issues pertaining to women empowerment, gender violence and actions needed there off. I encourage all of you to join me in saluting Viacom 18 for taking this bold step to adopt a documentary and dedicate air time for such an important issue of awareness. It is truly commendable and indeed a benchmark for the industry to follow.”

Viacom 18 as India’s fastest growing entertainment network has something to offer across generations and cultures. Its impactful content has been changing mindsets since its inception. The adoption of this documentary to mark the anniversary of Nirbhaya’s death is one such initiative on the path of the network. The documentary will be broadcast on 27^th December, 2015.