New Delhi: A documentary on India’s one of the most popular anchors and household names Ravish Kumar, ‘While We Watched’, was released at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11. The film revolves around Ravish Kumar, a senior executive editor at NDTV, over a two-year period from 2018 to early 2020. Kumar is one of the known critics of the current central government and who coined the term ‘Godi media’, the term is now short for ‘lapdog media’.
The film begins with a trademark opening line, familiar to NDTV Hindi viewers as the anchor says, “Namaskar, main Ravish Kumar,” (Hello, I’m Ravish Kumar). The documentary talks about the reign of the current central government and the role of media in our country. It takes expert and inspiration from Ravish Kumar’s scripts and talks about the themes of ‘enemies of state’ and ‘democracy’.
The documentary takes the viewers into Kumar’s household and shows his life amid all the chaos in the political scenario of the country. The film captures some historic moments such as the NDTV’s founders, Pranoy and Radhika Roy’s house being raided by CBI over a multi-million-dollar loan in 2017.
The 92-minute documentary is made by Vinay Shukla and the cinematography has been done by Amaan Shaikh and Vinay himself. Shukla is also one of the producers of the project along with Khushboo Ranka and Luke W. Moody. In the film, the director looks at how independent news reporting in India is ‘increasingly under threat by budgetary cuts and, especially, extremists leveraging alternative platforms to spread misinformation.’
