"What they need to change is the gun law"

Sabrina Lal is far from being the demure, self-effacing sister of the slain glamorous model Jessica Lal, that she was presented as in Raj Kumar Gupta’s thriller No One Killed Jessica. She, in fact, has a commanding presence, towering well above the others, in stature and speech. Her long and inspiring journey to justice, which grew from being a personal one to being a public campaign, changed her in many ways.

Apart from finding surprising reserves of inner strength to stand the years of struggle against an unyielding, corrupt system, Sabrina also found the strong voice that is now a regular feature on television debates and discussions. “I was an introvert 10-12 years back. But can handle all the media attention now,” she tells us. And she’s not sitting back after finding closure with the comeuppance her sister’s murderer met with. She’s busy running her travel company she started in ’97, and supporting other fights for justice. She spoke to us on the eve of Sony Entertainment Television’s CID Gallantry Awards held in Mumbai, where she was one of the judges.

A tragic event in your life set you off on a very personal fight for justice. It further went on to put you in the limelight and giving you a larger role — that of a talking head on various issues. Is the irony frustrating?

Well, yeah. Though I would’ve loved it if the criminals were brought to book at the very beginning. I didn’t choose the way this has turned out.

But is it still pressurising to be made a role model? You started out only wanting justice for Jessica and now you are invited to attend rallies for other causes. Did you ever feel like hanging your boots after you achieved what you wanted?

You know, I don’t go to all these campaigns and rallies because it’s expected of me. If so many people have supported me during my struggle, I think the least I can do is to be there for them when they want me to. And when you go through such an emotional journey, when you have been through so much, your heart naturally goes out to others who are going through the same situation now. I give a lot of credit to the media, the public, the university kids who attended the candlelight vigils for Jessica for their support.

The media that supported you in your long legal battle is now fighting accusations of lobbying in the 2G scam. Do you think its motivations are less holy than projected?

Well, the media is full of different kinds of human beings, so it’s not fair to comment on it as one entity. But yes, everybody knows it’s business at the end of the day. You can run a story for long going purely by emotion. And let’s face it — scams have become a part of our daily lives.

How did you react to your portrayal in No One Killed Jessica? A lot of critics have pointed out that Vidya’s character was completely devoid of any personality, which is so not the case with Sabrina in real life...

That was the director’s vision of my character and I have no problems with it. I’m not really concerned about how he has projected my personality. What matters is that he’s stuck to the facts of the case, he’s gone as close to the truth of the matter as possible. The incidents, the conversations with the police, in the courts, are all very close to the truth. Justice for Jessica has been achieved. Is there anything else you wish to challenge? The gun law. They need to change that. If Manu Sharma hadn’t carried a gun that day, Jessica would’ve been alive today.