Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan’s 2004 film Swades has had a lasting influence on Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), who says watching the film over a hundred times inspired him to return from the United States and work for his native village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district.
Dipke recently launched his “School Thik Karo” campaign on Independence Day, starting from his village. During the campaign, he visited government schools and documented problems with basic facilities, including seating, water supply, functional windows, and toilets.
Sharing photographs from the campaign on social media platform X, Dipke spoke at length about his deep connection with Swades. He wrote that he grew up watching the film and fell deeply in love with it, having watched it over a hundred times.
He specifically pointed to a scene where the film’s protagonist Mohan visits a struggling farmer Haridas, and then on his train journey back sees a young boy selling water at a station instead of attending school. “As Mohan quietly sheds a tear, I did too. Every single time,” Dipke wrote.
Dipke said Shah Rukh Khan’s character Mohan, who returns to India from abroad and dedicates himself to improving life in his fictional village Charanpur, made him want to do something similar for his own village. “Ever since, somewhere in my heart, I wished that someday I could do something for my own village, just like Mohan did for Charanpur,” he said.
Dipke added that he never anticipated that life would give him a real chance to act on that wish. “Little did I know that life would take such a turn that years later, I would return from the US and actually get an opportunity to do something very similar for my own village,” he said.
He concluded by expressing gratitude for the support he has received. “Life really does come full circle sometimes. I’ll always be grateful for this opportunity and for all the love I’ve received from people. I’ll give it everything I have to do something meaningful and make a real difference.”
The School Thik Karo campaign has drawn attention to the state of government school infrastructure in rural Maharashtra, with Dipke’s personal story adding a human dimension to the broader conversation about grassroots social work.
