Australian documentary film maker David Bradbury, who made a film on the protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Plant in 2012, was detained at the Chennai Airport on September 10 after he was prevented from passing through immigration, multiple media outlets have reported.

The 73-year old multiple award-winning filmmaker was on a two-week trip to India with his children -- Nakeita Bradbury (21) and Omar Bradbury (14) -- after the recent demise of his wife who had accompanied him on his last visit to the country in 2012.

Bradbury was reported as saying that he had planned to take his kids to Varanasi and show them, especially his younger son Omar, how "Hindus deal with death and say farewell to their loved ones in the next life.”

His wife Treena, who was also a filmmaker and an activist, succumbed to cancer five months ago.

Bradbury alleged that as soon as he landed in India, he was detained and held for 24 hours in a "pretty disgusting room with papers and rubbish on the floor under a bed with a filthy mattress and no sheets" without access to a toilet. His request to put him in touch with the Australian embassy was turned down. Despite informing the authorities of his health condition, Bradbury was allegedly denied medication and was subsequently deported from India.

He was also allegedly pressed by the authorities to reveal his contacts in India, which he refused.

Bradbury claimed his detention and subsequent deportation was connected to his film on the Kudankulam nuclear plant.

Bradbury had made the film while visiting India in October 2012 along with his wife and then three-year-old son. They were on a tourist visa and Bradbury was a member of the jury for the Mumbai International Film Festival.

After the Festival, Bradbury with his family visited Idinthakarai, a coastal village in the Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, which was an epicentre of the protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.

The protests had been spread across the Tirunelveli district with locals being concerned regarding the widespread and long-term impacts of any potential mishap at the plant following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. A month before Bradbury's visit, police had shot dead a protester in Idinthakarai as villagers protested uranium fuel being filled in the plant which is the final step towards making it functional. As many as 66 people, mostly women were arrested -- several of them on charges of sedition.

Bradbury had stayed in the village for two weeks and documented the protests and the daily lives of the villagers who predominantly depended on fishing for livelihood.

Despite his detention this time around, Bradbury insisted that his children stay and embark on their planned trip on their own as they would regret missing the chance otherwise.

Source: The New Indian Express