India, Aug. 12 -- Ashwani Kumar is a Secretary in the IT Department of the Government of Assam and the Director of DITEC. He is also an IIT Madras alumnus and a career civil servant. Last Sunday, he was at PVR Chanakyapuri watching himself on screen, playing a police officer who initially opposes his wife's decision to continue a pregnancy when they learn the child will be a girl. The film is called Devyani. It is streaming on ZEE5. And it begins from a place that Kumar says is more complicated than simple prejudice.

"Many people want a daughter; they desire to have one. However, they are held back by fear, fear of a society where times are tough, where one doesn't know if a girl who steps out will return safely. Every day, she faces the...