Almost a year after the #MeToo movement arrived in Bollywood , filmmaker Manish Gupta is gearing up for his next, Section 375, which revolves around a rape case and features Akshaye Khanna and Richa Chadha as lawyers.While many had speculated that the courtroom-drama is inspired by the Shiney Ahuja case, Akshaye Khanna, in an interview to Mirror (August 27) , had said, “You’ll have to ask the writer. It could be one of the many cases that triggered someone to write a story, I wouldn’t know.” Pose the question to Manish, who has penned the script of this Ajay Bahl directorial, and he clarifies, “Like my previous films, Sarkar (as a writer) and Rahasya (which I also directed), Section 375 is based on my observation of what’s happening around us — where the law around a heinous crime like rape is being misused by men and women alike.”Coincidentally, he was to make a film with Shiney in 2009 and used to visit his wife, Anupam (who was also managing her actor-husband’s work) and him at their Oshiwara home. “One evening, I heard that Shiney had been arrested for rape. I rushed to the Oshiwara police station where the DCP said, ‘We’ve established intercourse, but we are not sure if it’s consensual or forced,’” Manish recalls, adding, “While Anupam explained to me that the DNA report is prone to error, when I read the charge-sheet, the girl’s traumatic statement sent a chill down my spine.”Manish wrote the script after three years of research during which he attended over 160 court hearings, interviewed criminal lawyers, rape survivors and even the accused. “At the Sessions Court in Kala Ghoda , three courtrooms are dedicated to rape cases. I noticed that many cases had been filed by women against their ex-boyfriends, former live-in partners or even ex-fiancés after acrimonious break-ups. In some cases, they were not genuine accusations and the judges seemed to know this but they were bound by law to prosecute the men,” he shares, admitting that the real rape survivors are the worst affected by this. “The truth of their statements come under doubt due to the overwhelming number of fake cases,” he points out.When asked if his film takes a stand, Manish states, “As filmmakers, our job is not to pass judgement on anyone but only to educate and entertain while holding a mirror to our society.”