Patna: Underprivileged girls studying at a spoken English language institute on Monday held a condolence meeting for the legendary Sridevi, who died on late Saturday night. The institute, based in Patna, was inspired by Sridevi's comeback film English Vinglish.
In the movie, Sridevi plays an ordinary housewife in the film who manages to speak fluent English after a month-long crash course at a coaching centre in New York. The theme has struck the right chords with the Mahadalit girls in the seven districts of Bihar where they are enrolled for a similar project, Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Mission, launched by the Nitish Kumar government.
Birbal Jha, director of British Lingua, a Delhi-based institute of spoken English which has tied up with the Bihar government for the project, said Sridevi's death was like a personal loss for them.
"The film had motivated the students to a great extent. I had organised the screening of this film for all the Mahadalit students enrolled in the seven districts," he said.
"We are saddened by the demise of the fine actress whose comeback venture had served as a catalyst for our endeavours," Jha said.
"We identified ourselves with Sridevi's character, Shashi in English Vinglish," said Madhuri Kumari, a student of Dayanand Kanya Vidyalaya, Mithapur in Patna, after seeing the film. "She inspired and given us confidence," she said/
Appreciation for the project had come from the actress herself who, upon learning about the programme and the benefits the Mahadalit girls were deriving from it, said her film 'English Vinglish' has achieved its goal.
The Mahadalit girls were trained by the institute as part of a collaborative initiative between 'British Lingua' and the Bihar government's Mahadalit Vikas Mission. Around 30,000 youths from the downtrodden sections classes had benefitted from the project between 2012 and 2016.
