While We Watched' wins ‘Busan Cinephile Award’ at 27th BUSAN International Film Festival 2022.

Mumbai: After winning the ‘Amplify Voices Award’ at the Toronto International Film Festival, Vinay Shukla’s feature film While We Watched, a turbulent newsroom thriller featuring Ravish Kumar has won ‘Busan Cinephile Award’ at 27th BUSAN International Film Festival 2022. 

    This is the second award won by the film in a row. 

    Busan Cinephile Award is given to the best Korean and Asian documentary film presented in the Wide Angle documentary showcase section. The jury, consisting of students from the cinema-related departments of six universities in Busan region, selects the winner.

    Titled ‘NAMASKAR! MAIN RAVISH KUMAR’ in Hindi, While We Watched is a turbulent newsroom drama that intimately chronicles the working days of news anchor Ravish Kumar, as he navigates a spiralling world of truth and disinformation. 

    Through the lens of its protagonist - a man clinging onto integrity even as everything falls apart - ‘While We Watched’ urges the viewer to consider their own responsibility and culpability as news and media come under greater scrutiny than ever before, Vinay’s upcoming film delivers the promise of a bold, timely, and globally relevant documentary.

    While We Watched is Shukla’s second film after his highly-acclaimed debut feature An Insignificant Man (co-directed with Khushboo Ranka). An Insignificant Man, which won a historic censorship battle, was hailed at film festivals around the world, and became a runaway success in theatres. 

    The 94 mins documentary in Hindi-English language is a UK production and is produced by LONO Studio and BRITDOC Films.

    Excited about winning the award, Vinay Shukla says, “I’m very overwhelmed. I’d like to thank the Busan International Film Festival, the audiences and the jury. I spent the last 4 years locked in, working on this film everyday. I had an incredibly dedicated team. We wanted to make an immersive cinematic film about the emotional cost of making and consuming news. It was a hard and long process. I moved to the outskirts of Delhi and rented a place there for two years to shoot the film. Then, during Covid, my entire team was living and working together. Like most people in the world, we witnessed personal loss, made professional sacrifices and tried to stay sane by cooking meals learnt from YouTube. The film was our truest companion. To now know that the film is playing across the world and making new friends is a deeply satisfying feeling. This is our second award since our premiere last month. Our screenings in Busan and Toronto ended with spontaneous applause and standing ovations. I’m really grateful. A big thank you to everyone who believed in this film.”

    The director Vinay reflects on the film, “Journalists are the foremost storytellers of our time. I spent two years in Ravish's newsroom, watching him build his daily broadcast. Ravish and his team would get some stories right, some stories just about. Watching him, I realized that for every report that we see on the news, the journalist behind the report pays a cost - an emotional, financial, ethical and mental cost. No story is easy, every story is personal. This film is about that personal cost that journalists pay to do their job right. My film would apply to any journalist who has stood their ground and chosen to file a story which was true to their beliefs. This film is my love letter to journalism.”

   One of the film’s producers, Luke W Moody, remarks, "Amongst a cacophony of opinions, attention seeking headlines, and endless scroll of disinformation, Vinay's film steps forward to ask a generational question: how do we understand truth? How will we know when it's lost?"