Jyoti Nisha & Somnath Waghmare on making anti-caste cinema and a nation in denial

In one of the most moving scenes in filmmaker and scholar Jyoti Nisha라이브 바카라 Dr B.R Ambedkar: Now & Then (2023),a woman in Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) confesses she is willing to lay down her life for an Ambedkar statue. Startled at first about the extreme lengths some are willing to go for a statue—especially that of someone who advocated against blind-faith and irrationality—its significance dawned on me much later. Unlike most idols, the Ambedkar statue was an entire community라이브 바카라 reminder for dignity and a last attempt at asserting themselves as a part of civil society. By defacing it, the Thakurs of the village had humiliated the Dalits (which culminated in the 2017 violence). And that라이브 바카라 the thing about caste, is how it can flip one라이브 바카라 worldview – where you start noticing injustice trickling down in the most mundane ways.

Despite growing up with a father who was vocal about their caste identity and Ambedkar, Nisha was in her late 20s by the time she was personally made aware of it. “It was in a romantic equation,” says the 42-year-old filmmaker, “He had a very different way of speaking about his sister—which was kind of hypocritical.” It was when she reached Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 2017 for her Masters that she discovered her community and began to have an open dialogue about it. “The more you speak to friends about the subtle indicators of caste—the way someone spoke to one of you, as against someone else,” recounted Nisha. “Some teacher, who might have been extra harsh to you, or the way a lover spoke to you.”

Nisha라이브 바카라 film along with Somnath Waghmare라이브 바카라 Chaityabhumi (2024) recently premiered on MUBI, as a part of the platform라이브 바카라 “Unbroken Blue: The Legacy of BR Ambedkar” collection. The films come at an interesting time as the country라이브 바카라 Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) actively takes steps to remove explicit caste references from films, like it did in Ananth Mahadevan라이브 바카라 Phule recently. Other films like Sandhya Suri라이브 바카라 Santosh and Shazia Iqbal라이브 바카라 Dhadak 2 (an official remake of Mari Selvaraj라이브 바카라 Pariyerum Perumal (2018)) have been stuck with the CBFC for close to a year now. "In the end it was just too difficult to make those cuts and have a film that still made sense, let alone stayed true to its vision,” Suri told The Guardian about her film라이브 바카라 release being blocked in India. In times like these, Nisha and Waghmare라이브 바카라 films and their voices become that much more necessary.

Chaityabhumi is Waghmare라이브 바카라 second feature documentary after The Battle of Bhima Koregaon: An Unending Journey (2017), which retraced one of the earliest recorded events of Dalit assertion. 34-year-old Waghmare라이브 바카라 journey, much like Nisha라이브 바카라, has been a long, winding one. “This is the first film that has gotten me to travel to London School of Economics and Columbia University,” confesses Waghmare, “I’ve been working for almost nine years now.” Focusing on the annual remembrance pilgrimage that Dalits undertake on Dr Ambedkar라이브 바카라 death anniversary on December 6, Waghmare라이브 바카라 current film chooses to unfold through a string of folk performances. “Whenever non-Dalits make films on Dalits, they only see suffering. I wanted to break that and tell the world about our culture. There were ways to approach it, but I finally decided on doing it through the lens of a musical. If you look at the movement in Maharashtra, the songs are a major part of it,” he says.

Nisha라이브 바카라 film is a rare documentary that systematically uncovers the lies following the death of Rohith Vemula—something a popular film wouldn’t dream about in the present circumstances. She also interviews those involved in the Saharanpur violence and the flogging incident in Una (Gujarat). Having theorised “The Bahujan Spectatorship” during TISS,Nisha said the theoretical framework helped her visualise the documentary more clearly. Unhappy with the first couple of edits of her documentary, Nisha finally decided on including herself into what was becoming a ‘heavy’ film. It라이브 바카라 one of the more self-conscious portions, not quite fluent as the rest of the film.

When asked if we’re still a society in denial about caste, both filmmakers answer in the affirmative. “Dalit movement explicitly states it라이브 바카라 not against brahmins. It라이브 바카라 against brahminism,” notes Waghmare, on films being asked to remove explicit caste references. “Who is afraid of showing 100-year-old customs? If they aren’t guilty themselves, why are they afraid?” he asks. While admitting that she hasn’t faced outright bias from the film industry, Nisha hopes more popular names engage with her film, which has been travelling for over a year. “So far, no one from the popular space has reached out to me and said, ‘Hey Jyoti, let라이브 바카라 work on this. We’ll pay you fair and square.’”

It라이브 바카라 interesting to note how similar both Nisha라이브 바카라 and Waghmare라이브 바카라 paths have been while making their films. Both were made through a crowdfunding campaign, later helped by Pa Ranjith라이브 바카라 Neelam Productions. Both films have travelled to renowned universities abroad, and have now been acquired by the same streaming platform. Is there an upside or downside to wearing your caste identity on your sleeve? “It라이브 바카라 not like an upside or downside, right? It라이브 바카라 who you are. I’m not doing this because it라이브 바카라 profitable— it라이브 바카라 who I am. I’ve been making this film since 2016,” says Nisha. After making such an explosive film, does she worry about being boxed in as someone who might not be willing to work on relatively more flippant films? “It라이브 바카라 a very human reaction— assuming. It라이브 바카라 the limited imagination of a person, and how they see you. If they typecast me (as a storyteller), it라이브 바카라 not really my problem,” she says.

Would they recommend a young filmmaker to embark on a journey to make a film on caste today? Waghmare sounds unsure. “It라이브 바카라 an individual choice obviously. I know there are very few people in Mumbai who I will align with. Production houses are not very welcoming.” He라이브 바카라 been working on a film on Ambedkarite scholar and sociologist Gail Omvedt for a few years now— unable to raise funds for it, despite having a first cut. When asked if it라이브 바카라 a path she might consider stable enough, Nisha signs off with saying,“What would you consider as ‘stable’ in filmmaking in India? I don’t know. It라이브 바카라 the path.”

*Jyoti Nisha라이브 바카라 Dr B.R.Ambedkar: Now & Then and Somnath Waghmare라이브 바카라 Chaityabhumi are both streaming on MUBI as a part of their Unbroken Blue: The Legacy of BR Ambedkar collection.