Indian cinema-goers are to be treated to pre-film mini documentaries as part of a nationwide campaign to increase awareness of HIV and Aids prevention.

A number of short films directed by Bollywood’s top directors will be shown across the country to educate the audience on the virus and ways to prevent its spread.

The programme was set up by Indian film director Mira Nair and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Speaking to USINFO, Ms Nair said that she was inspired into action by the “startling statistic that if we don’t control what’s happening in India in terms of the lack of awareness and stigma and other things associated with HIV” the country’s figures could rival those of Africa.

“I proposed that I would get together the most cutting-edge, commercial, populist film directors from different regions of India who would each use iconic movie stars who are recognised…in our country, who would each make a dramatic tale of 15 minutes in length,” she said.

Each director was then assigned a topic or theme associated with HIV and Aids, but were given total freedom as to how they presented the story. One of the themes was the day-to-day impacts of living with infection, dealt with by Vishal Bhardwaj’s film Blood Brothers.

Ms Nair herself tackles the fact that Aids is not a class-specific virus and uses her short film Migration to show that HIV was a great “class-leveller that links rural, urban, upper class, working class [and] migrant labour”.

Finally, Ms Nair added that she hoped the films, due to be released by the end of the year, will prove to be so successful that they are translated into different languages and used across the world. She also said that it could pave the way for further directors to take on the challenge to produce more films next year.