Star of Oscar winning documentary faces eviction from home in Uttar Pradesh: reports

The Uttar Pradesh forest department has issued a notice for the demolition of Pinki Sonkar's house in Mirzapur district, India Today reported.

Pinki rose to fame with the 2008 Oscar-winning documentary 'Smile Pinki', which was based on her life.

Apart from the Pinki, over 30 people living in her village have been served demolition notices, as the forest officials have described their houses as 'illegal possessions'.

The villagers who received the notice said that the land was offered to them by the forest department officials when Pinki Sonkar's documentary won an Oscar award, the report said.

According to Pinki and her father, Rajendra Sonkar, the villagers were not told that the land belonged to the forest department when the houses were being constructed.