Lords Of Lockdown premiered at the New York Indian Film Festival

Mihir Fadnavis’s Lords Of Lockdown, produced by Anurag Kashyap and Navin Shetty, was premiered at the New York Indian Film Festival on 7 May.

The two-hour documentary looks at the largescale exodus of daily-wage migrant workers who walked back to their respective homes in 2020 during the first six months of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Lords Of Lockdown also looks at the stark struggle for survival while fighting against the odds by examining heart-wrenching stories from that period and also revisiting real-time visuals.

The documentary speaks to four professionals, from different walks of life that played key roles during the pandemic. They include Ruben Mascarenhas from the NGO Khaana Chahiye, The Washington Post journalist Rana Ayyub, inspector general of Indian Railways AK Singh, and urogynaecologist Dr Aparna Hegde. They all discuss the different aspects of suffering during the lockdown with a special focus on the effect it had on the migrant workers who were left to fend for themselves.

Fadnavis said of the premiere, “It was a visceral experience making this film, and thanks to the support of both my producers Anurag Kashyap and Navin Shetty we were able to make something thought-provoking and certainly unique. I hope those watching the film feel the emotional upheaval we had while making it.”

The makers have also attempted to sensitize people about communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

Fadnavis has written and directed the short film Chingum, which had its premiere at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2021.