Rittika Roy, 16, of Sonarpur has been taking four insulin shots a day ever since she was a child. Her father, who works as a mason, would not have been able to afford her treatment had it not been for Diabetes Awareness and You (DAY), an NGO working on diabetes awareness in the state.

Started in 2006, DAY today has a 300-strong team engaged in spreading awareness about diabetes and its debilitating effect in Bengal, especially in rural areas. The organisation's latest step towards educating people about the growing "social issue" is a short film starring Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Payel Sarkar. The 22-minute movie titled DAY premiered at Nandan II on Thursday, to mark World Health Day.

"About seven crore people in India are diabetic and 60 per cent of them are undiagnosed," said Indrajit Majumder, the founder and secretary of the organisation, before the screening of the film.

The film is a dream come true for diabetes specialist and physician Debasis Basu, the president of DAY. "Diabetes is a growing lifestyle disease. In Bengal, around 12 per cent of the population suffers from it. Obesity leads to high sugar level. We must know how to modify our diet and lifestyle to keep diabetes at bay."

The film tries to educate the audience about the killer disease through a simple social narrative.

The story revolves around a young couple (Parambrata and Payel). The faulty lifestyle of most people in the city, irrespective of their economic condition, is the focus. Shot in less than a month, the film was completed on a budget of around Rs 6 lakh.