Dilip Wagh

While I was going to a village with my pastor in 1999, he told me of the Australian missionary Dr Graham Stuart Staines. Why did he come here? What work he had done and why he had been killed by others. After that I did a research. At that time I was just 25 years old. I went to Orissa and read St Antony’s book. I am from an Orthodox Hindu family. I asked them why they killed the Staines. They explained that it was only because of the poverty in their homes, they were forced to do such a heinous crime. I asked and found out the person behind this crime. I came to know that they had killed Dr Staines for money. Those who had killed him were a band of men. I also came to know about the people who prompted to kill him. Then I thought this entire incident must be brought before the Christian faithful. I began shooting my film in 2003. When ten days of shooting had been completed, same people had come and stopped it. They didn’t allow me to complete it. By that time I had spent 13 lakhs of Rupees to make the film. My money was being wasted. My film is named “Balidan ek Sachhai,” which means “Sacrifice is Truth.” This film is all about him who had been killed. I decided to make his sacrifice known. The great work he had done as the servant of God was made known to all the people through it. I earned the money spent from my own business. I was a small business man.

When they stopped my film shooting, from then on, up to ten years, I didn’t touch my film work. Meanwhile I earned some money and again completed 19 days of film shooting. This time some people threatened me saying, “Do you want to disturb the peace of India by shooting this film?” I replied, “Our Indian culture is Athidhi Devo Bhava, to honor guests and strangers. What is wrong in honoring and respecting them for their life?” I had an argument with them. I didn’t listen to them at all. Among them, a person came up to me and beat me behind my ear. I turned back and saw all my actors had disappeared. After some time, I took up the shooting twice more. I prayed to God and said, “Lord a person whom you have chosen for the sake of Your Kingdom, I wish to show his life to the world.” God had chosen me and my money for this film. With that I finally completed my film. In 464 shows six lakh people cried watching that movie. I have got nine international awards for this film. And I am extremely happy that people liked this film. It’s not a commercial film. Some paid money and others didn’t.

Mine is a genuine Marathi family; still they helped me a lot to shoot this film. My family helped me with about two and a half crores. My wife put in thirty-five lakhs worth of gold and my sister sold ornaments worth five lakhs. Many other Hindu relatives also helped. But the people belonging to my Church said, “Why are you making this film and putting your life in danger?” None of the Christians encouraged me; rather, they all discouraged me. There was no financial support and encouragement from them.

35 years back I suffered from T.B. It was so severe that I would fall down by coughing blood. My family was very poor; actually my father was a drunkard. He never bothered about his family. All his money went for drinking. Since I was suffering with T.B., my pastor came and prayed over me. That moment I experienced a miracle in my life; my cough automatically stopped. I got complete healing. At that time I was not a Christian. He said to me, “If you have faith in God, then you will be healed.” I said, “I have faith in Jesus and I wish to be healed.” I got cured and regained good health. My entire family and the people who were gathered witnessed this great miracle. My family was a bit afraid of society, but I gave a loud testimony before the whole congregation.