Under the watchful eyes
Once an ‘Insignificant Man’, Vinay Shukla has come a long way. His journey from being a cinema buff to becoming one of the leading men in documentary-making is an inspiration for many. The recent one, While We Watched, received the Peabody Award in June, which revolves around renowned prime-time journalist Ravish Kumar fighting propaganda-driven misinformation and receiving death threats, as he continued to bring grassroots issues to the fore. It would be apt to say, ‘While We Watched, Vinay Shukla filmed’! Shukla, humbled by the award, says, “These are awards that for years were given to my favourite films and directors. So, personally I feel like an imposter to receive this honour. But also feel grateful to be receiving it for my team. It represents their hard work.”
Recalling his journey as a director, Shukla recalls 2011 when his friend Khushboo Ranka wanted to cover the Jan Lokpal protest movement in India. As they together went with their cameras to document it, unlike billions of Indian citizens, they also didn’t know that it would transform into something big and also the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). His first documentary, An Insignificant Man, also went to festivals and his co-director Khushboo later became the producer of While We Watched. He says, “For most of the months that we shot, there was no audio. We got better sound system, learnt about software and editing. So, in other words, we learnt on the job and also established a core team while working on that project.”
A self-taught director, Shukla says we have long moved past the times when learning in an institute was a necessity to become a filmmaker. “In today’s time, mics are not scarce but many have nothing to say. The same way, it’s tougher to decide, kehna kya hai (what to say through your films) than to study theory and practicality of direction. I was very privileged as a child to be exposed to world cinema, and fortunate further to have the right friends and community that helped me understand cinema in a better way.” Shukla’s film is available on Mubi and shown as part of Mubi Top 1000 and New Voices.
About his favourite scene from While We Watched, he says is the opening shot where Ravish is strolling through the debris of one broken floor of NDTV office. Shukla has given more than two years of his life to While We Watched, and talking about the making of it recalls, “We had approached Ravish for the documentary and he obliged, but permissions were needed from his employers — NDTV. During the shoot, I had seen him work and learnt from him that ‘there’s beauty in detail’. He would write 10,000 words daily and did not believe in bullet-point newsmaking.” Shukla jokes that many would ask why Ravish and not any other journalist, like Nidhi Razdan or Sreenivasan Jain, but he has realised that ‘English people love English people’! “In my mind, I see a great protagonist in Kumar. Also, his dry humour intensified the narrative. I wish I could add more of it into the documentary.”
Shukla refuses to be put in a box as documentary filmmaker and shares how his first attempt at filmmaking was a fictional short film, Bureaucracy Sonata (Raag Sarkari), in 2011. He is currently focused on promoting Shasn, which isn’t a film but a political strategy board game.
Full circle
For Shukla, life came a full circle when he received praise from film director and screenwriter Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. “I had grown up watching Rao sir’ films — Apoorva Sagodharargal (Appu Raja) and Pushpaka Vimana. So, for him to call and say ‘I am moved and had not seen anything like it’ was the best compliment I ever got. It’s great to hear a word of praise from people who inspired you.”
