Meet Aravinda and Ravi, The Inspiration Behind Shahrukh Khan's Movie 'Swades'

Directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar in 2004, Shahrukh Khan's critically acclaimed film Swades probably didn't make as much money at the box office as it should have, but it definitely did strike a chord. The story of Mohan Bhargava leaving his life and high paying job behind in the U.S, to help a village in India showed how one man could truly affect thousands of lives. The will to get up and do something for someone is all that one needs.

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Swades wasn't just a figment of Gowariker's imagination, but based on the lives of NRI couple Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi. Theirs is an incredible story of return to India, and giving back to society, a story of inconceivable will to carry out their vision.

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The beginning

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Ravi has always been deeply rooted in grassroots development in India. He founded the AID (Association for Indian Development) back in 1991 while working for his PhD in Physics at the University of Maryland, USA. To tell you a little about his initiative, AID is a secular charity organisation based in the United States that works towards promoting "sustainable, equitable and just development". Over the years, AID, with the work they have carried out in India, has won a number of accolades including the 'Global Impact Award' by Times of India. Currently, AID has more than 36 chapters with over a 1000 volunteers spread across the globe.

Aravinda Pillalamarri

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Aravinda was brought up in the U.S, and has been working with AID since 1995. It is reported that it was at AID that Ravi and Aravinda met, and started working together towards a better India. She has been working on a number of projects with the organisation since, including advocating a model of participatory development where social justice was looked at as the heart of any developmental work. Upon the completion of her Master's degree in South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Ravi and Arvinda moved to India to work full-time on several AID projects. The year was 1998.

The Bilgaon Project

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Bilgaon is this remote town in Maharashtra located on Udai, a tributary of river Narmada. Scattered across a four kilometre radius, it is a quaint little town with 180 tribal families. For 55 years after Independence, Bilgaon had not seen electricity. The national electricity grid would be 12 kms away from the village. Even the power line from India's mega hydel project being built on the Narmada river, the Sardar Sarovar Dam, avoided the tribal villages. The nearest proper road would be 60 kms away, and a makeshift, muddy, 'kachchi sadak' - 18 kilometers away. Everything that could be wrong with Bilgaon was wrong with Bilgaon.

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What Aravinda and Ravi did notice was a 9-metre high waterfall of sorts which could very well have been utilised to generate electricity. The Bilgaon Project started in May 2002. It took some time, but eventually, by January 2003, they had done it. Thanks to a tiny 15KW generator, The Bilgaon Project provided electricity to each and every home in the village. They were also successful in building an 'ashramshala', a boarding school that provided shelter and necessary education to approximately 300-odd children from Bilgaon and surrounding villages. It was absolutely outstanding to be able to create a sustainable form of energy for a generation of people who didn't even know what electricity was.

A remarkable feat

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They weren't the only two involved in this, obviously. It was collaboration at its best in fact. Anil Kumar and C G Madhusoodanan from People's School of Energy (PSE) in Kerala, prepared the blueprints. The special turbine was designed by a professor from IISc, Bangalore, the implementation was done by Mumbai-based Sarvodaya Friendship Centre along with locals from the village. Four chapters of AID helped out with the funding of 12 lakhs.

The whole village had a part to play in it. The whole structure of the project, from the check damn, the canal, the tank and the powerhouse, most of the structures were built by voluntary labourers living in the Bilgaon village.

Bilgaon got more than just electricity

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Electricity meant people could now draw water a lot more easily for drinking and irrigation. It also helped with the oil-extraction unit. Working bulbs also meant that the boarding school could now have children study in the evening or sometimes, even at night.

It was cost-effective too. Before the project, the monthly expenditure of a family would be anywhere around Rs 150, a sizeable amount for farmers, thanks to the use of kerosene for lighting of lamps and lanterns. Now, it would oscillate anywhere between Rs 20 and Rs 30. They had to make it equitable, in order to make it self-sustainable. The money was used in operation, maintenance, and if required, expansion of the unit. Everything was charged for. A bulb would cost anywhere around Rs 10 per month, and Rs 30 per month for a television. Back then Bilgaon had 5 TVs.

Such was the success of the town, that it pretty much became a benchmark of sustainable development for the rest of the country. 'People's Power', hailed the villagers as politicians started milking Bailgaon in their speeches. Maharashtra Government's Energy Development Association proposed that they recreated the Bailgaon project in the surrounding villages. But that, of course, never happened.

The tragedy

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It could've been a 'happily ever after' story, but things turned sour pretty soon. Only three and a half years down the line, everything was gone. In August 2006, the Bailgaon microhydel project got completely washed away due to the backwater effect of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Tumultuous rainfall leading to the rise of water levels flooded a number of villages along the Narmada, including Bailgaon. What was supposed to be a benchmark of sustainable energy for thousands of villages across the country, ended up being washed away by 'modern' India.

Aravinda and Ravi, along with AID, carry on working tirelessly for a number of issues and projects from around the country. They have played a big part in the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and carry on fighting for the betterment of the tribals in Maharashtra.