Neetu Chandra: Must include Maithili in Bihar school curriculum

MUMBAI: Maithili language might get included in the curriculum of Bihar schools, and actress Neetu Chandra welcomes the move.

The actress, who produced the National Award-winning Maithili film "Mithila Makhaan", says that the inclusion of the language is a "life-changing event".

"I believe that once a language dies, dies the whole society - be it the food, culture, music and clothes. Everything becomes extinct with the language. Therefore, I plead and urge that they should surely include Maithili, Bhojpuri, Magahi and the other regional languages of Bihar in the school curriculum. It's very important. And to start with Maithili would be a great step ahead. If we include this, it will just not be a state changing affairs but also society and life changing event. It will open up a lot more scope for the people of Bihar," she says.

She urges people to support the cause. Talking about the efforts she has made in getting more acceptance for the local languages, Neetu says: "I have been very proud of my brother Nitin Chandra who's been fighting for the languages of Bihar for the past 10 years. Our YouTube channel titled as Bejod.in has been working on the different languages of Bihar by making short-films, music videos, documentaries etc."

She adds: "Champaran Talkies is a production house, founded by brother Nitin Chandra and me, we are the first ones to get a national award for Bihar in the language of Maithili. There are five languages of Bihar -- Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magahi, Angika and Vajjika. Maithili is considered one of the most important languages."