Filmmaker Vinay Shukla’s docu-thriller While We Watched has won the Amplify Voices Award, presented by Canada Goose, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2022. The documentary had its world premiere at TIFF Docs on September 11.
Shukla’s film gives the audience a peek into the newsroom of NDTV, one of India’s leading news channels, and features ace journalist Ravish Kumar, who is known for speaking truth to power.
Shukla made his debut at TIFF in 2016 with his film An Insignificant Man, which chronicled the rise of Arvind Kejriwal, an ‘outsider’, in India’s political spectrum. It showed Kejriwal’s journey from an anti-corruption crusader to forming the political outfit, Aam Aadmi Party. The film was banned by the Indian government. Shukla fought it out with the censor board to get the film released uncut. He won and An Insignificant Man released theatrically across India on November 17, 2017 and ran for eight weeks.
Learning from his experience, Shukla had kept While We Watched under the radar during the filming period. Ever since the news about screening this documentary at TIFF broke, Shukla has been facing a backlash from a section of right-wing internet trolls.The subjects of the film — NDTV and Ravish Kumar — have been scathing in their criticism against the central government.
While We Watched has been produced by Lono Studio and Britdoc Films, which is a part of Doc Society. Khushboo Ranka, who had co-directed An Insignificant Man, has also produced this documentary. Earlier this year, While We Watched was selected by the Doha Institute for their annual talent incubator, Qumra.
