An Amazon Prime collection on Indian marriage ceremony planners has been accused of failing to acknowledge the contribution of a Dalit journalist who says that the primary character seems to be based mostly on her personal life, as recounted in a e book she wrote.

Yashica Dutt, 37, has been based mostly in New York for just a few years however grew up in India amid the every day contempt to which individuals who belong to her caste are subjected.

In her 2019 e book Coming Out As Dalit – a Memoir, Dutt chronicled the agonies of her childhood when her mom tried to cross off the household as Brahmins to guard Yashica and her different kids from society’s cruelty, recalling the fixed terror of being caught out.

She was sitting in her condominium final week when her cellphone started ringing. Friends in India requested if she had given permission to the makers of the most recent episode of the present, Made in Heaven, to base the primary character, a Dalit bride, on her e book.

In it, the bride is proven as a powerful girl from the bottom caste in Hinduism who marries a person of a better caste. She is unashamed about who she is, assured, and stands up for her neighborhood.

Dutt turned on her TV and, as she watched, was heartened {that a} Dalit had lastly been solid as the primary character in a rustic the place the neighborhood is nearly by no means seen in movies or TV. She discovered the portrayal transferring and nuanced.

But the admiration quickly turned to shock. “Seeing my likeness on screen without warning or permission was a rollercoaster starting from thrill and excitement to sadness and loss,” she mentioned.

Dutt is single and doesn’t dwell in India. To that extent, the character just isn’t like her in any respect. “But the woman is shown as a Dalit author from Columbia University [where Dutt studied journalism] who has written a book about coming out and talks about how her grandmother used to clean toilets. That is my grandmother. That is me. It’s my life, my words. But my name was nowhere,” Dutt advised the Guardian.

Soon individuals who had learn her e book have been asking on social media if the collection was impressed by her life. The director of the collection then posted a touch upon Instagram itemizing her title as one of many collaborators and thanking her.

Dutt says that whereas she appreciates the gesture, even when belated, an Instagram put up just isn’t sufficient. No one at Amazon Prime, she claims, has acknowledged that the episode was based mostly on her life with out her consent. But much more hurtful, she says, is the dearth of acknowledgement within the credit.

On Thursday, the director and producers denied appropriating Dutt’s work and life. In an announcement posted on Instagram, they mentioned the Dalit bride was completely fictional and was based mostly neither on Dutt’s life nor anybody else’s. They mentioned they have been disturbed by the “misleading reports” and so they have “immense respect for Dutt and her work”.

Amazon Prime mentioned the creators of the episode had responded and that it could not be commenting.

“The word for my caste is bhangi [assigned to those who have to clean toilets] – it comes from such a terrible place of shame in India that even saying the word is difficult. It took huge effort on my part to tell my story,” Dutt mentioned.

Her e book recounts the efforts her mom, Shashi, made to maintain up the pretence that the household was Brahmin. With no cash and an alcoholic husband, Shashi needed to fund “upper caste” occasions corresponding to birthday events and make up their home in order that it appeared respectable.

The existential rigidity was nearly insupportable. One unsuitable phrase or gesture in a second of spontaneity whereas enjoying with buddies or shopping for sweets from a shopkeeper may expose the lie and her true id.

Her experiences taught her that, as a Dalit girl, she could possibly be ignored. Now, as an grownup, she says she won’t be disregarded.

“Millions of people around the world may see the show. It is my life. It’s so blindingly obvious. Viewers have seen it and said so. It’s not just me. I have the right to have my intellectual contribution acknowledged where it belongs, in the credits, not as an afterthought in an Instagram post,” she mentioned.