Featuring Gajraj Rao, this ad about supporting daughters wins the internet

A new social media hit, featuring veteran actor Gajraj Rao, has left viewers in tears with its powerful message about parental support. The campaign, titled Band Baaja Bitiya, has gone viral for its strong message against the societal norm of women being forced to “adjust” to their abusive husbands.

Gajraj Rao’s powerful new ad challenges the silence around domestic abuse

The video, shot by Prosit Roy, the man behind Pari and Paatal Lok, is told through two different timelines. In the first, Gajraj is seen leading a wedding band through the streets, seemingly on his way to a wedding. In the second, he receives a devastating phone call from his daughter. When she tells him that she is being abused by her husband, Gajraj asks her a chilling question, “Phir se?” (Again?).

As the story unfolds, the father is faced with pressure from his wife, son, and other family members, all of whom tell his daughter to accept her fate and stay with her husband. However, the two timelines eventually come together to show a powerful twist: Gajraj has not brought the band to a wedding, but to his daughter’s husband’s house to take her back.

Confronting his in-laws, he says the most impactful line in the film, “Ye na koi parai hai, nahi dhan” (She is my own, and she is nobody’s wealth). The advert ends with a chilling reminder that many women suffer in silence simply because their families choose not to support them.

The story is based on a real-life incident that shocked the nation in India recently. In 2023, a father from Ranchi brought his daughter home with a brass band to celebrate her divorce from her abusive husband. Another incident was reported in Kanpur in 2024, where a father welcomed his daughter home with the same grand gesture after years of ill-treatment.

Since Gajraj posted the video on February 18, it has received millions of views. Reacting to the film, he said some stories, “insist on being told because society needs to hear them.” For many viewers, the advert is more than a commercial; it is a long-overdue discussion about what family strength really means.

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