Nambi Narayanan on Rocketry: The Nambi Effect: 'I suffered a lot more than what’s shown in the film'

S Nambi Narayanan , one of the finest scientific minds in this country, woke up one not-so-fine day to be told that he was a spy. His twenty-year struggle to clear his name is a treatise of resilience and willpower. In-person Nambi Narayanan remains an affable kind soul, not embittered by the cards destiny dealt on his table. As the biopic on his life opens to the world, Firstpost speaks to the persecuted genius. It is an honour to be speaking to you in person? Thank you. Thanks to Madhavan ’s film my story will reach out to people who had not heard of me or what I had gone through. This is the magic of the media. That magic that you refer to also works in reverse, as it did in your case? (Laughs) Yes, I was subjected to quite a lot. The perception of my guilt was built on no substantial evidence. I was declared guilty for no fault of mine. Madhavan’s film has shown my suffering. But I suffered a lot more than what’s shown in the film. How did you manage to survive such a traumatic experience? My family was with me. My wife believed in my innocence. My children and my son-in-law stood by me. That gave me the strength to carry on my fight. You could fight back against injustice because you had the support and because you are who you are. What about the common man who gets trapped in false cases. What is your advice to him? Nothing. There is nothing that one can do when faced with what I did. The reform has to come in our judiciary. The judicial system in India needs radical changes so that the innocent do not have to suffer It took me nearly twenty years to get where I am with my legal procedure.

And the guilty are yet to be punished? It is happening. It is under due process. I am sure the people who were responsible for framing me will be punished. In fact, one of the guilty police officers has recently been arrested. He was caught doing the same thing, cooking up false charges, against others. I am living with the faith in the judiciary that all the culprits will be duly punished. Otherwise, as I tell Mr Shah Rukh Khan in the film, it is only justice half-served. That is an enormously moving moment in the film when you come on screen and Shah Rukh Khan apologizes to you on the nation’s behalf and you say you don’t accept his apology? Yes, for me the process of getting justice is work in progress. Luckily all my debts accrued in fighting my legal battle have been paid off. I don’t have to live under the stress of knowing that I owe people money. Do you know, there were nineteen adjournments in my case? Every time I had to travel by air from my home town, it cost me a small fortune. Then when I would reach the court the case would be adjourned because the other party wouldn’t turn up. It took me seven years to get a defamation notice hand-delivered to one of the accused. He would just not receive it. This went on for seven years. I finally had to take the help of the government of Kerala before the notice was delivered. Do you think Madhavan’s film is some amount of compensation for what you have suffered? It is a big compensation. Thanks to the film, people all over the world will get to know the work I’ve done in the field of aerospace research. Madhavan’s film has shown how I furthered aerospace research in this country. It was not enough to show people that I could build a rocket. It is a complex technology. It was also essential that people understand how it was done. Madhavan’s film has done that. How do you look back on your experience of the pursuit of justice? I am grateful that I finally got some justice. There are so many innocent people like me out there who are suffering as they have no access to proper legal redress. Like I said, the judicial system in our country needs to be completely revamped. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.