A Free Press Under Threat in Modi’s India

A new Indian newsroom documentary exposes the trials and tribulations of journalism amidst the nation’s current hyper-nationalist crackdown on independent media. While We Watched (2022), directed by Vinay Shukla and now screening at Manhattan’s IFC Center, follows Ravish Kumar, a polarizing veteran journalist who worked with India’s formerly independent news broadcast NDTV, as he struggles in the field with a target on his back for refusing mainstream media narratives that pander to India’s current wave of Hindu nationalism.

Shot prior to the pandemic between 2018 and 2020, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected for a second term, Shukla’s documentary presents Kumar in his vulnerable state through deliberately tight, claustrophobic compositions. Kumar’s face barely fits into the frame as we look over his shoulder from the backseat of his car, glimpse at the newsroom screens in front of him, observe him spending time with his daughter and wife, and watch his resources thin out before him.

“I wanted to shoot and edit the film to induce the same anxiety that watching the news makes me feel,” Shukla said in an interview with Hyperallergic a few days after a press screening of the film at IFC.

“Ravish has been on the news and in the news business for over 20 years,” Shukla continued. “I knew that if I needed to build a new relationship with my audiences through Ravish’s character, I had to bring them much closer to him. I had to frame him in a manner that the audience felt like that they haven’t seen Ravish in before, so I really put the camera in his face.”

Viewers are made privy to the walls closing in on Kumar as the NDTV news team shrinks week by week due to downsizing, and his phone number starts circulating online on conservative and far-right groups and pages. Kumar is subjected to an onslaught of anonymous harassment and threats that mirror the vein-pulsing, mouth-foaming fervor of other news broadcasters who loudly decry any criticisms of India and PM Modi as anti-nationalist.

Throughout the documentary, senior news editor Kumar and his team cover stories that are largely ignored or misconstrued by other outlets such as the assassination attempt on Indian activist and university researcher Umar Khalid and the impacts of water scarcity as well as the parties responsible for it. By lifting the rug’s corners and daring to address the faults and biases of India’s conservative Bharatiya Janata Party, Kumar and his team opened the door for immense criticism from those who get their news from more incendiary outlets.

“Most Indian primetime news is filled with heated debates and opinion pieces right now that stoke the audience’s attitudes, and here we have Ravish, whose NDTV show scolds both the current news culture and characterizes the audience as part of it,” Shukla explained. “He was a newsman who was not only questioning governments, but also questioning the nature of his audiences and their own sort of trajectory. You know, it seemed like he was beginning to question his own relevance vis-a-vis the society that he wanted to do journalism in.”

Even though Kumar appears outwardly stoic, viewers are cognizant of his faltering faith in the industry. Many of his loyal colleagues get picked off or choose to leave in search of job security as NDTV‘s workforce shrinks due to low ratings and financial problems. His masked anxieties and exhaustion are complemented by the recurring motif of farewell cake for employee departures that ushers in a sense of foreboding.

“The first day we began shooting, there was somebody cutting a farewell cake, and it just felt like such a poignant and heavy moment wherein somebody who’s done this job for over 20 years is now leaving simply because the profession doesn’t have place for them anymore,” Shukla highlighted. He also noted that it was a cinematic parallel to the oranges shown ahead of ominous moments in The Godfather films. The cake served as a metaphor for the shrinking news team and Kumar’s feelings of isolation — being cut off from the whole.

Shukla’s case study on Kumar as the face of objective journalism under threat is considerably accessible and alarmingly relatable for an international audience that may not necessarily be clued into the nuances of Indian media and political influence. It’s worth noting that while the prize-winning independent film has been well received internationally, it has yet to debut in India itself as no film distributors have approached Shukla for screening opportunities so far. With the broadcast company’s founders unable to stay afloat independently, NDTV has since been handed over to Asia’s richest man, billionaire and Modi affiliate Gautam Adani, prompting Kumar’s resignation at the end of 2022.

The IFC Center in Greenwich Village is offering daily screenings of While We Watched between today, July 27, and next Thursday, August 3.