Docu couple in town

Speaking about their decision to take up documentary making, Kavita says, “Over the years, we understood that it is very important to share whatever knowledge we have.” Her husband joins in, “Our parents were teachers and sharing knowledge is the important lesson we learnt from them. We were doing well in our career as journalists, but there was no excitement in it. We were praising and protecting people and corporates we were supposed to expose as journalists.”

Their films Candles in the Wind, Dammed, I cannot give you my forest and Cotton for my shroud are all highly recognised for the subjects they dealt with including the plight of widows of farmers, those displaced by development and tribals. When asked about how they zero in on these subjects for their documentary, Kavita points out: “The seeds were sown long back. Back when, while working as journalists, we spent two years in the north-east. We saw the real India there, real people. We understood our role and the government's role, that was the point we decided to do something more.”

On the current state of intolerance in the country, Nandan says, “It is going to be a slow and painful process, but yes the country can be bought back from its precipice, that is the kind of strength Indians have.”

Documentary making is seldom a profit making proposition. Despite having very meagre financial support, the duo continues to maintain a very optimistic attitude about coming forward with more hard hitting films.” No channels are ready to air our documentaries now, and we are hardly getting anything in return. We bank on crowd funding but the point is that we’ve not been waiting for funds to make documentaries,” says Kavita.