Rakesh gave up documentary film-making in 1992, as “projects funded by international broadcasters and agencies always came with strings attached, however benign and I had no interest in making commissioned sarkari films”. In 1992-93, following the Bombay riots in the aftermath of the Demolition of the Babri Masjid, Rakesh took a sabbatical from his career, to run a relief camp in Jogeshwari East (Jhoola Maidan, near Gandhi chawl, where the Bane family had been burnt alive inside their home). As a full-time Nivara Haqq volunteer for several months, Rakesh ran the camp and worked with both the communities on relief, rehab and preliminary legal work, incl filing FIRs and compensation claims etc.