A new film which aims to lift the lid on the secret sexual activity of Indians could re-ignite the controversy over portrayals of Indian family life following films like Fire and Kama Sutra.

Director of Split Wide Open, Dev Benegal: "The film is dark but about hope"

Split Wide Open - by Delhi-born director Dev Benegal - centres on a TV programme which encourages people to talk openly about their "subversive sexuality".

Benegal explains that people appear on the show in complete anonymity and recount shocking tales of infidelity, incest, love triangles and systematic rape.

All the stories in the film are based on real letters which appeared in newspaper agony columns.

Benegal recalls coming across the letters: "The explicit detail in the huge volume of letters and the problems people were facing was overwhelming".

One of the few steamy scenes in the film

Amongst these stories, we see the abduction of a Bombay street-girl and her sexual abuse by a rich widower. Benegal describes first hearing the story of the paedophile:

"A man picks up a beggar child, has sex with her and then asks her to leave. But she refuses to leave asking instead that he allow her to be his wife or cook, or cleaner. His letter asks: What do I do now? I'm stuck.'"

Click here to watch a clip from Split Wide Open: 'The Cook's Confession'

"The film is about the loss of innocence of a child as well as the loss of innocence of a country as it hurtles towards a new millennium", says the director.

"It's about what happens when one billion Indians start talking about sex."

The film, which took four years to make, was praised by no less a body than the Indian board of film censors. "We were worried that it would be banned by the censors", explains Benegal.

The film explores the sexual underbelly of Bombay

"We were quite taken aback when they said were quite moved and how important it was for people across the country to see this movie". They even gave the producers advice on how best to distribute it.

The film has shown at several film festivals around the world including Tokyo, Toronto, Venice and most recently London.

Some of these stories are funny - the writers had originally concentrated on the more unlikely and bizarre letters - but others are horrifying.

All of them challenge the Bollywood cinema image and its diet of youthful romance, family values, and sex within marriage.

Children's rights?

As children's welfare organisations worldwide mark the 10th anniversary of the UN convention on the rights of the child, Benegal takes aim: "The real India is not a nostalgic image fabricated by Bollywood".

"40% of child sexual abuse is happening within the family. It's entered into everyday life. It could be happening next door."

Like the child in the letter from the paedophile, the raped child in the film is not desperate to flee the clutches of her abuser. Benegal comments on the extraordinary decision made by the girl.

"She has lived on the streets all her life and when she finds herself in an apartment with a TV and a video she doesn't want to leave - that's shocking."

Click here to listen to a clip: 'The daughter's confession' played by Ayesha Dharker

"How does she distinguish between abuse, shelter, and comfort?" asks Benegal. It brings the responsibility for protecting and being concerned about children back to society as a whole.

The Indian children's welfare group Cry provides the shocking statistics. A third of all girls born in India do not survive to see their 15th birthday. A sixth of all girl children die as a result of gender discrimination.

Of the estimated three million street children, girls are much more vulnerable than boys. Many are forced into prostitution from an early age. Most of these children will not come to terms with the abuse until later in life.