List of documentary films by Indian film-makers

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This is a list of documentary films by Indian film-makers. Some included works may be alternatively classified as television documentaries or television series episodes.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

150 Seconds Ago by Batul Mukhtiar. About the killer earthquake in Kutch, Gujarat, which devastated the 95,000 sq.km area include the 475 year-old walled city of Bhuj in January 2001.
A Narmada Diary by Anand Patwardhan (1995, 57 minutes, color) Co-directed with Simantini Dhuru, the film documents the Narmada Bachao Andolan's (Save Narmada Movement) battle against the giant Sardar Sarovar Dam that will displace 200,000 people in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
A Time to Rise; Uthan da Vela by Anand Patwardhan. (1981, 40 mins, color.) On the efforts of Indian immigrant farm workers in Canada to form a union.
Aakroshby Ramesh Pimple. About the Gujarat genocide of 2002.
Agaram by J Ramesh. 9 minutes. On child labour, won best film award from international short film festival at Melbourne, Australia and best director award from Independent Art Film Festival at Toronto, Canada.
Asli Azaadi (True Freedom). a film about the contribution of women to India's struggle for freedom. Sagari Chhabra (director and producer), 45 minutes.
Bombay our City; Hamara Shahar by Anand Patwardhan(1985, 75 minutes, color). On the daily battle for survival of Bombay's (Mumbai's) slum dwellers.
Ordinary Lives by Sheetal S Agarwal. A documentary set in a slum in Mumbai, with the lives of a family of ten living in a 180 square feet shack at its center. The documentary attempts to highlight the social, cultural, infrastructure and political issues that affect the lives of ordinary people in Mumbai and their juxtaposition with the efforts to make Mumbai a modern city October 2005.
"Dama Ka Daman" by Ritu Awasthi, (2006, 26 minutes, colour). Film documents the hazards of air pollution in Kanpur which is responsible for increasing Asthma among Kanpurites.
Father, Son and Holy War; Pitra, Putra aur Dharmayuddha. By Anand Patwardhan. (1995, 120 minutes, color.) On the relation between religion, violence and male identity. Does the root of India's recent bloodshed - perhaps all bloodshed - lie in male insecurity, itself an inevitable product of the very construction of "manhood"?
Final Solution by Rakesh Sharma (2004, 149 minutes. DVcam/DVD): Set during the period 2002-2003 in Gujarat, the film is a study of politics of hate.
Fishing: In the Sea of Greed by Anand Patwardhan (1998, 45 minutes, color) Fishing communities in India and Bangladesh begin to resist "rape and run" industrial-scale fishing that has begun to decimate their livelihood destroy their environment.
Global Warming, a film about global warming and climate change. Sagari Chhabra, director. Produced by The Energy Resource Institute (TERI).
images you didn't see by Anand Patwardhan ( 2005, colour, 2005). A music video that interprets images gleaned from the internet that never appear in the mainstream media, or images whose import is masked behind a velvet curtain of global infotainment.
In the Name of God Ram Ke Naam by Anand Patwardhan (1992, 75 minutes, color). On the rise of Hindu fundamentalism as reflected in the temple/mosque conflict in Ayodhya which led to nation-wide carnage.
In Memory of Friends; Una Mitran Di Yaad Pyaari by Anand Patwardhan. (1990, 60 mins, color) On the efforts of a group of Sikhs and Hindus to rebuild communal harmony in strife-hit Punjab by proposing that class identity is an antidote to religious violence.
Hunger In The Time Of Plenty. Starvation deaths at the time of food surplus. Directed and co-produced by Sagari Chhabra. 30 minutes.
Kumar Talkies by Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
New Delhi Pvt Ltd. a documentary film by Hazard Centre. An attempt to capture the city of Delhi as it gets systematically refashioned to become a 'world-class' space, a productive site for the neo-liberal regime. But as this space gets 'taken over', it has to be thoroughly and urgently purged of all that is "unprofitable" and "undesirable", manifest in the systematic destruction of the lives of the very people who toil to build the city. What emerges is a commodified, privatized and cordoned city space that comes at a 'cost' and therefore for only those who can afford it... Director: Ravinder Randhawa. 37 minutes.
Now I Will Speak, a film on rape. Sagari Chhabra. 40 minutes.
Occupation: Mill Worker by Anand Patwardhan (1996, 22 minutes, color) As textile mills are shut down by owners with an eye on the rising price of real estate, workers forcibly take-over the New Great Eastern Mill.
Pather Chujaeri by Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
Prisoners of Conscience; Zameer ke Bandi. By Anand Patwardhan. (1978, 45 mins, B&W) On political prisoners in India before, during and after the State of Emergency in 1975-77.
Restless Shores by Noel Rajesh [1][2] (2003, 20 mins, color) The local people of a fishing community in southeastern India narrate their struggle to maintain control over their local fishing grounds and livelihoods as they face the threat of large-scale commercial trawlers.
Ribbons for Peace by Anand Patwardhan (1998, 5 mins, color) An anti-nuke music video made in the wake of India's nuclear tests revisits a 60's Hindi film song by Kishore Kumar, a precurser to John Lennon's "Imagine".
SEZ Arajakachi Nandi by Atul Pethe. A film on special export zones. Available from National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Serenity Complex, Ramnagar Colony, Pashan, Pune 21 Phone 00912022952003/4 Mobile - 9890836549
Some Roots Grow Upwards by Kavita Joshi and Malati Rao. (2002 / 52 min / col): Exploring the work of the acclaimed Manipuri theatre director, Ratan Thiyam, against the socio-political context of a conflict torn region. Keywords: theatre; arts; politis of arts and culture. More info: http://kavitajoshi.blogspot.com/2006/03/some-roots-grow-upwards-information.html#links
Tatva (Essence). A fiction film about a woman in search for herself in contemporary India. Sagari Chhabra, director. Produced by Doordarshan.
Teesra Raasta, by Anwar Jamal. His second short film on female foeticide, premiered at the Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Feb 24, 2007.
The Red Corridor, a special feature on CNN-IBN done based on Vanaja C's story on the parallel government run by Maoists in Dandakaranya regional of central India, won the Indian Telly Award for best non-fiction programme on Indian television.
The Vote by Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
Three Men and A Bulb by Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
War and Peace (Jung Aur Aman) by Anand Patwardhan (2002, 130 minutes, color). Filmed over three tumultuous years in India, Pakistan, Japan and the USA, War and Peace records peace activism in a time of global militarism and war. Triggered by macabre scenes of jubilation that greeted nuclear testing in the sub-continent, the film is framed by the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. Fifty years later memories of Gandhi seem like a mirage that never was, created by our thirst for peace and our very distance from it.
Waves of Revolution (Kraanti Ki Tarangein) by Anand Patwardhan (1974, 30 mins, B&W) On an anti-corruption movement in Bihar which led to a declaration of a State of Emergency in India.
We are not your Monkeys by Anand Patwardhan (1993, 5 minutes, color) A music video giving a dalit ("untouchable" caste) critique of the Hindu epic Ramayana.
Khayal Darpan by Yousuf Saeed (2006, 100 minutes, colour) exploration of classical music in Pakistan by an Indian filmmaker. Especially looks at the impact of the 1947 Partition of India on the classical music.