Author Yashica Dutt demands due credit in ‘Made in Heaven’ Season 2: ‘Dalits have a long history of being taken from, erased, ignored’

Dutt’s book, ‘Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir’, served as an inspiration in the Neeraj Ghaywan-directed fifth episode in the Amazon Prime Video show, but the writer wasn’t formally credited

Journalist and author Yashica Dutt has expressed disappointment over a lack of acknowledgment for her contributions in an episode in the second season of Amazon Prime Video India’s Made in Heaven.

The fifth episode in the show, titled The heart skipped a beat, centres on an accomplished and outspoken Dalit character and shines a light on the subject of inter-caste weddings in India. As acknowledged by director Neeraj Ghaywan in an Instagram post, Dutt’s book, Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir, served as a partial inspiration on the show. The episode starring Radhika Apte drew praise and generated discussion on the positive portrayal of Dalit identities in mainstream entertainment (Ghaywan’s past films, including the short Geeli Pucchi in Ajeeb Dastaans, have been similarly lauded).

Penning her thoughts on the episode in a post, Dutt praised filmmakers like Ghaywan who have ‘revolutionalized our cinematic language’ by ‘showcasing unapologetic Dalits in Bollywood’.

But she also demanded recognition for inspiring the storyline through her life and work.

“The scene where the Dalit author who is from Columbia, has written a book about ‘Coming Out’, and talks about how her grandmother ‘manually cleaned toilets’ (while wearing all blue as an homage to Ambedkar), asserts her selfhood with her life partner to-be, gave me chills,” Dutt wrote. “It was surreal to see a version of my life on screen that wasn’t but yet was still me. But soon the heartbreak set in. They were my words but my name was nowhere. What could have been a celebration of our collective ideas was now tinged with sadness. The ideas I cultivated, that are my life’s work, that I continue to receive immense hate still for just speaking, were taken without permission or credit.”

Dutt wrote that Dalits and Dalit women have “a long history of being taken from, erased, ignored, obliterated from our own stories.”

“Dalit women in particular are the easiest to take from, what’s the worth in the labor they’ve created anyway. It’s for everybody to claim. Except this time. I’m reclaiming my work, my worth and my contribution to the discourse and history, defying the order of what’s expected of me as a woman who is always supposed to fine tune the ‘register of her rage’. The Made in Heaven episode is stunning in its portrayal of a Dalit woman and her Buddhist inter-caste wedding. It also unfortunately erases my contribution to my own ideas,” Dutt expressed.