Indian Women Rising backs Oscar-eligible short film Bittu

The Indian Women Rising (IWR) collective founded by Ekta Kapoor, Guneet Monga, and Tahira Kashyap has picked up its first major film in Karishma Dev Dube's Bittu. The short film is eligible for the Best Live Action Short Film category at the 2021 Oscars. The film will now be presented by the IWR throughout its campaign. 

The unreleased Bittu has bagged the 47th Student Academy Award. Inspired by the school poisoning of 2013, Bittu explores the close friendship between two schoolgirls on this seemingly normal day at school. The film follows the story of an eight-year-old who must take matters into her own hands when her community fails to protect its most vulnerable. 

After winning the award, the film was screened at the BFI London Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival and Hollyshorts among many others. 

Indian Women Rising put out a statement hailing Bittu as a simple yet incredibly impactful story. "We resonated with the story presented by female creators, with Karishma Dev Dube, Shreya Dube, and Mary Evangelista coming together as a team. With Indian Women Rising, our aim is to be able to provide the necessary thrust to potential stories in order to achieve higher goals, Bittu seemed the ideal choice for our first project with its refined story and immaculate presentation and we plan to shine a spotlight at the film as it joins the run for Oscars in Best Live Action Short category," the statement read.

The director said that Bittu stemmed from certain aspects of her life in boarding school in Dehradun. "At its core, however, the film is a re-imagination of the infamous 2013 school poisoning in Bihar, through the eyes of Bittu, a fierce and brilliantly foul-mouthed eight-year-old girl. The film is less about why and how the poisoning happened, instead, it attempts to bring to life an otherwise forgotten community in the foothills of the Himalayas. We’ve had an incredible journey with Bittu, we were honoured with the Student Academy Award last year and continue to explore new worlds with our proud partnership with IWR — an initiative much needed in India," Dube said.