Vira Sathidar, who played the protagonist in National Award winning movie ‘Court’ which was also India’s entry to the Oscars in 2016, passed away due to COVID-19 on Tuesday. The 62-year-old activist-actor was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for COVID-19 treatment. He is survived by wife, son, and other family members. He was associated with Dalit Panthers Jatiantachi Chalwal and called himself a ‘Left Ambedkarite’. He was appointed as President of Maharashtra unit of National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations for the year 2021-22. He had written several poems and books.

 

 

 

Recently, he was working on a documentary ‘Aadhaa Chaand Tum Rakhlo’. When ‘The Hitavada’ had interviewed him April 2015 against the backdrop of success of the movie ‘Court’, Vira Sathidar had spoken at length about his journey of life. Born as Vijay Ramdas (ViRa), he later changed it to Viplav (revolution) Rauf (revolutionary leader). He worked with Dalit Panther, CPI-ML (Liberation). In 2015, he was working as full-time worker of Republican Panther. He then lived with his mother Gangubai, wife Pushpa who was Anganwadi Sevika at village Parsodi, son Ravan (also called Lankesh) doing a private job.

 

Vira Sathidar was a farmer’s son who grazed cows, completed education up to Class X; worked as a factory worker, construction worker, volunteer with an NGO, devoted time to social movements, sold and wrote books. He had edited the magazine ‘Vidrohi’ too. In an interview, he had admitted once that he was influenced by Maoist thoughts. In 2006, police had booked him for selling ‘objectionable literature’ in Chandrapur, and later filed closure report.