New Delhi/Guwahati, Aug 16: For IAS officer Ashwani Kumar, the move from government offices to the film set is not a departure from public service but an attempt to find a new medium for social change. A 2010-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Kumar is currently serving as Secretary of the Assam government’s Information Technology Department and Director of DITEC.

Alongside his administrative responsibilities, he has made his acting debut in the film ‘Devyani’, which explores the relationship between a father and daughter while addressing women’s safety, dignity and empowerment. For Kumar, the shift to cinema stems from a question that public administration alone cannot always answer: how does one change deeply rooted social attitudes?

“Government can build institutions, create programmes, and change rules, but how do you change deep-seated societal attitudes?” Kumar said.

“Not every change begins with a policy. Some changes begin with a story.

If cinema can make even one family think differently about daughters and women’s strength, the effort will have been worthwhile,” he added. Set against the intimate backdrop of a family, ‘Devyani’ uses the bond between a father and daughter to explore wider questions around women’s safety, dignity and empowerment.

The film seeks to move the conversation beyond awareness and towards empathy, while challenging traditional perceptions of women’s roles and strength within Indian households. Kumar believes his years in public administration have given him an understanding of people and society that he can bring to his work as an actor.

While policy interventions can reach large sections of society, he said, stories can influence individuals and families at a more personal level. This, he believes, gives cinema the potential to address attitudes that may not change through conventional awareness campaigns alone.

In ‘Devyani’, Kumar plays a character that connects with themes that have also shaped his administrative career, particularly empathy, dignity and empowerment. His acting debut is part of a wider interest in writing, acting and storytelling, which Kumar sees as complementary to his work in government.

Rather than pursuing cinema as a route to celebrity, he views it as another avenue through which he can contribute to social welfare. The experiment, in his view, is about combining his experience as an administrator with his interest in storytelling to explore how narratives can influence social behaviour.