Venue: Maquinez Palace, Old GMC Complex, Panaji, Goa
India has a strong tradition of films that explore cities as characters in themselves — their social dynamics, architecture, chaos, and contradictions. Over three days, the Nagari Film Festival presents a curated lineup of Indian films and discussions that engage with urban life through fiction, documentary, and experimental cinema.
The festival opens with the Nagari 2025 Award Ceremony, premiering this year’s anthology of short films and initiating a dialogue on the role of the public realm in our cities. The following days feature themed screenings and conversations exploring how cinema reflects, critiques, and reimagines the urban experience.
There are multiple ways to reach Goa, with air travel being the quickest option. Goa International Airport (Dabolim, GOI) in South Goa is about 30 km from Panaji, while the newer Manohar International Airport (Mopa, GOX) in North Goa is around 35 km away.
If you’re arriving by train, the main stations are Madgaon (Margao) and Vasco-da-Gama. The Konkan Railway offers scenic routes from Mumbai and Karnataka, with direct trains also available from other major cities across India. The closest station to Panaji is Karmali Railway Station.
Goa is also well connected by road, with both Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTCL) and private operators running frequent bus services from major cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.
Within Panaji, you can easily get around using the city’s EV Smart Buses, which operate across six routes and connect key parts of the city. Auto-rickshaws and pilot bikes (motorbike taxis) are also available, offering flexible and affordable ways to travel short distances. The easiest and cheapest option is to rent scooter bikes.
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In the bustling Sadar Market of Agra, a group of children who sell balloons in the market take us along as they navigate between work and play, hostility and joy, commerce and friendship in the urban space that is designed to exclude them. In this vehicle-choked public realm, we observe their routine of overcoming various barriers and intuitively carving spaces for themselves. With their games and tender resilience, Pakdam Pakdai celebrates children’s agency in employing the act of play to claim space amid the relentlessness of the city.
Manaveeyam
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Street cultures across the world can shape socially conscious societies. This documentary asks whether public space development is merely an infrastructure upgrade or a catalyst for cultural evolution. Manaveeyam Veedhi, once informally reclaimed by street collectives, was renovated in 2023 as a cultural corridor under Kerala’s Smart City Project, ensuring 24/7 public access. The film explores its spirit through stories of inclusion and accessibility, following a young man who works as a juice maker at Manaveeyam and later becomes a singer through music collectives, a non-binary lesbian who shares their story of how the space gave them the confidence to acknowledge their identity. We also see artists as well as families mingling together to make it a vibrant space. The film also reflects on civic responsibility, asking how people engage with the freedom such spaces offer and concludes with an introspection on whether the Manaveeyam model can be sustained and replicated in future.
ফুল গাড়ি (Scent of Nocturnal Flowers)
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Phool Gari (Scent of Nocturnal Flowers) explores a small patch of land beside Barasat station that transforms each night from a bustling auto stand into a flower market. As the last autos leave, flower vendors arrive, setting up makeshift shelters, dozing under the open sky, and waiting for the first Bongaon Local, the train they call Phool Gari, to begin their trade. As metro construction slowly encroaches, swallowing the space they call their own, the film observes their quiet rhythms, the delicate balance between labour and survival, and the fleeting moments of community that emerge in the margins. Phool Gari reflects on belonging, resilience, and the struggle to hold onto life in a suburban landscape that constantly redraws its edges, where the same ground quietly serves different livelihoods across the day and night.
Pascal Premier League
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Pascal Premier League is a film about the transformation of a street with a deep history of violence, displacement, and change into a space of joy and community. Set on Shahid Road in Jogeshwari East, a neighbourhood once marked by the 1992–93 Bombay riots, the film observes how a group of young boys reclaim this narrow lane by establishing their own cricket league. What was once a site of fear and memory now becomes a field of play and laughter. The act of reclaiming this space is both resistance and celebration, reflecting how everyday life, imagination, and play can redefine the meaning of public space in a city constantly reshaped by ever-consuming change and evolution
Deewar Nāma (Chronicles of the Walls)
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Deewar Nāma (Chronicles of the Walls) is a reflective documentary that journeys through Mumbai’s walls — from the bustling lanes of Charni Road to the fading murals of Bandra — uncovering how they speak, remember, and sometimes disappear. What begins as a filmmaker’s casual curiosity about street art unfolds into a meditation on expression, erasure, and ownership. Through encounters with muralists, commuters, and anonymous street artists like Tyler, the film captures the fragile dance between creation and censorship, memory and renewal. Each story — of a woman seeing her past on a painted wall or an artist risking arrest for his message — reveals how the city’s surfaces mirror its soul. As the colours fade and the walls are repainted, Deewar Nama asks: when everyone can speak, what truly deserves to be said?
How much space does a firefly take?
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‘How much space does one take’ is a question Kabir asks as he performs his solo play about his trans-ness and belonging in a city. Interwoven with phone calls from different trans people recounting their experiences of navigating urban public space, his play takes shape to become a testament of trans memories, struggle, and reclamation. The film questions the idea of identity driving one’s experiences with public space. Who are the cities made for? Who are they accessible to? Why do queer people need to be invisible while traversing through the city?
Hissa
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Hissa tells the story of two migrant barber brothers who have spent their lives cutting hair on the streets of Mumbai’s Dhobi Talao. Their small setup survives on the edge of legality as their chairs and mirrors spill onto the road. Though they come from the same family of barbers, their dreams divide them. The younger wants to return home once his son begins earning, while the elder believes the city has become his home. The story is narrated by a young girl, the elder brother’s daughter, who recalls a fable told by her grandfather about frogs seeking shelter in a pond full of fish during a drought. Through her voice, the film reflects on what it means to belong, to survive, and to choose one’s place in a restless city. Hissa is about inheritance, and a claim to space in the contested public realm.
Mauj Ni Khoj (Seeking Fun)
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In the small city of Bhuj, two young Muslim women navigate societal and familial restrictions, carving out fleeting moments of joy in the city. The film follows their friendship, revealing how the public realm is both constraining and resilient, where small defiant acts create space for “mauj” (fun). Through their eyes, we explore: What does “mauj” mean for young Muslim women in the small city of Bhuj? Where do the boundaries of safety and freedom lie-and who draws them?. Their story is not just about restriction, but also of finding laughter in the margins, about friendship as sanctuary, and about the quiet, everyday acts of rebellion that make fun possible-even if only for five minutes at a time.
In Search of Humans
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Set in a restless Kolkata, ‘In Search of Humans’ observes a city where digital and real worlds merge, dissolving the boundaries of public space and human emotion. Through fragments of protests, daily life, and screens projecting chaos, it reflects a time shaped by fear, surveillance, and disillusionment. A poem flows through these moments, weaving collective anxiety, loss, and fragile hope into the city’s pulse. Blending documentary, AI-generated imagery, Gaming graphics, and personal archives, the film reveals how people move within self-made boxes. Amid this fractured landscape, ‘In Search of Humans’ searches not for answers but for traces of empathy, tenderness, and resistance that still survive in silence.
महाद्वार (Mahadwar – The Great Corridor)
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Mahadwar journeys through the fading rhythms of Mahadwar Road — a historic street in Kolhapur that once pulsed with trade, devotion, and daily life. As large-scale redevelopment plans surround the Mahalaxmi Temple, the film reflects on what is lost when progress erases memory. Through nostalgic visuals, intimate sounds, and a deeply personal voiceover, the director revisits the street of her childhood to understand its transformation. Between the noise of politics and the quiet resilience of people, Mahadwar stands, asking: Are development and expansion truly the same? What happens to the life of a street when its physical body disappears, but its pulse still lingers in memory?r
Through The Dappled Light
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Through the play of dappled light, the film reflects on the lives of Chandigarh’s informal workers: visible yet overlooked, ever-present yet structurally invisible. These lives exist in the shadows, not in hiding, but not entirely in the light of urban recognition. Through the stories of a barber, a chaiwala, a kelewala and labourers, we explore how their presence, among the trees of Chandigarh, offers affordable services and helps generate a social public realm for the lower-income classes. Chandigarh’s planned 74,000-tree cover offers much-needed relief from the elite and programmed, hard, paved and monotonous edges of the roads and sectoral grids. These workers occupy this shade without tenancy or title, instead operating under intermittent licenses issued post the 2014 Street Vendor Survey. As they anchor themselves with these trees, they momentarily step outside their ‘worker’ identities to rest, to play cards, to share tea or gossip, and to simply be.
Valai Pinnal
The film is yet to be completed and will be added later on our YouTube channel. Keep an eye out for the film.
The fisherfolk of Nochikuppam navigate the shifting landscape of their homes in the wake of government interventions. Through myriad acts of preservation of materials, documents and oral knowledge, the film explores the people’s resistance and their relationship to space.
Kiran Keswani is Co-founder, Everyday City Lab. She is an architect and urban designer based in Bangalore. She has completed her PhD in Urban Design from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. She has had an architectural & urban design practice for more than 20 years. She has taught courses at CEPT University in Ahmedabad and the Azim Premji University in Bangalore.
Parul Kumtha
Parul Kumtha is an architect, trustee of NAGAR and founder of Nature Nurture Architects and Planners. A graduate of Sir J.J. College of Architecture (1988), she has also studied Biodiversity Conservation and Built Heritage Conservation, and is trained in Mental Health and Narrative Practices. Her work focuses on resolving the often-conflicting relationships between architecture, heritage, and the environment. Her firm is empanelled as an Access Auditor under the Government of India’s Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan. She has previously served as visiting faculty at Sir J.J. College of Architecture, guiding dissertations and teaching courses on Urban Studies, Natural Heritage Conservation, and Universal Design. With NAGAR, she has worked extensively on public open spaces and accessibility issues in Mumbai.
Ashwini Deshpande
Ashwini Deshpande is an architect and urban researcher specialising in Architectural History and Theory from CEPT University. Her work bridges contemporary urban issues with historical inquiry, focusing on how planning, policy, and heritage intersect in shaping cities. She has previously worked as a Junior Archivist and teaching associate at CEPT University.
As Associate Director at NAGAR in Mumbai, Ashwini addresses civic issues related to public open spaces, heritage, slum rehabilitation, street vending, and land reclamation. She is also part of the Preserving Legacies cohort, a global initiative led by the National Geographic Society, ICOMOS, and the Climate Heritage Network, where she is representing Mumbai’s World Heritage Site of urban ensembles in efforts toward climate resilience and heritage preservation on behalf of NAGAR. Her research aims to critically examine how fragmented regulatory systems in cities across India produce environmental injustices and deepen social inequalities.
Avijit Mukul Kishore
Avijit Mukul Kishore is a filmmaker and cinematographer, working in documentary and interdisciplinary moving image practices. He’s involved in cinema pedagogy as a lecturer and curates film programmes for prominent national cultural institutions.
In the small city of Bhuj, two young Muslim women, Sherbanu and Mariya, navigate societal and familial restrictions, carving out fleeting and risky moments of joy in the neighbourhood and city. Their friendship reveals how the public realm means constraints and freedom, where small defiant acts create space for Mauj.
Valai Pinnal
The fisherfolk of Nochikuppam navigate the shifting landscape of their homes in the wake of government interventions. Through myriad acts of preservation of materials, documents and oral knowledge, the film explores the people’s resistance and their relationship to space.
Through The Dappled Light
In Chandigarh’s rigidly planned city, trees offer shade and shelter to informal workers on the margins seeking space and belonging in a city that never planned for their presence.
Fireflies in the Night
In a city where he’s used to being unseen, a trans man joins a midnight walk with queer strangers, where loitering becomes a quiet rebellion against identity erasure. On the other hand, as he rehearses his debut play ‘Beyond the Bodies’, he recollects his erasure and the moments of magic that a community brings.
Manaveeyam
‘Manaveeyam’ traces the life of a small urban street in Kerala’s capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, reclaimed by its people, where social inclusivity, civic responsibility and freedom converge, transforming into an accessible, socially just and inclusive public realm; a blueprint for the future.
Phool Gari (Scent of Nocturn Flowers)
This film aims to explore the quiet transformation of a liminal space beside Barasat railway station, from a morning auto stand to a night flower market and the resilient livelihoods that thrive within its rhythm.
Pascal Premier League
On a narrow street in Jogeshwari East, a group of young boys organise their own mini cricket league—reclaiming a congested public lane for play, joy, and community in a city starved of accessible open spaces.
Hissa
In the rapidly shrinking public spaces of South Bombay, two street barber brothers fight to preserve their dignity, legacy, and humble livelihood, operating on the edge of legality. As the city sanitises its image in the name of progress, we’re forced to ask: are we clearing mess, or erasing mobility?
महाद्वार
Mahadwar – The Great Corridor
Set against the backdrop of a ₹1445 crore redevelopment plan for Kolhapur’s Mahalaxmi Temple, the film explores the emotional and economic ecosystems of Mahadwar Road — a historic market street. Through voices of traders, vendors, and residents, it questions: can public memory survive without physical continuity?
Walls of Expression
Set in Mumbai’s ever-changing urban landscape, this documentary explores how public walls become sites of resistance, memory, and expression, while also revealing the fear, erasure, and control they provoke.
Pakdam Pakdai
In Agra, seemingly designed for cars, children invent playgrounds out of footpaths, medians, and market edges. Pakdam Pakdai scales the city to a child with a child’s eye view of play, resistance, and imagination—where joy collides with heat, traffic, and exclusion, and the city is both a game and a question.
Fragmented Realities
Fragmented Realities captures Kolkata during a time of unrest, where digital and real worlds overlap, revealing collective fear, protest, memory, and quiet hope within a shifting public landscape.
“The city is a product of a state of war between political and economic forces that shape and re-shape the urban landscape.” – Mike Davis1
Cities are often perceived as consequences of planning, geography and economy. We perpetually criticise our cities, in search of more inclusive spaces, but rarely do we acknowledge the powerful role of ‘political ideologies’ in shaping them. To substantiate this statement, we will take two contrasting cities – Kolkata (an old metropolis politically rooted in communist values) and Bengaluru (an emerging metropolis driven by neo-liberal growth), to depict how political worldviews manifest in the urban fabric.
The CPI(M)’s (Communist Party of India-Marxism-Leninism) thirty-two-year rule in Bengal created lasting impacts on the city’s core ideologies. A few of the positive core beliefs which people of Kolkata grew into were ‘sensitivity towards class issues’, ‘preaching for equality’, and ‘active civic participation’. On the other hand, Bengaluru’s neo-liberal transformation started with Sir M. Visvesvaraya’s address to the Bangalore Literary Union in 1953, where he said:
“What makes Americans long-lived, progressive and prosperous”, he continued, “is the planned, disciplined lives they lead. Our activities on the other hand are unplanned, and our behaviour unplanned and inactive.”2
This comparative statement, along with his appeal to the citizens to see themselves as ‘stockholders of the city corporation’ 3 in every municipal engagement, sowed the seeds of the present neo-liberal growth of Bengaluru, inspired by the West.
The Left Front in Kolkata actively resisted the privatisation of urban land, enabling the survival of expansive green spaces like the Maidan, accessible at all times. Its porous edges were a result of ‘proletarian power’, dismantling boundaries and ensuring equal spaces for all.
In contrast, Bengaluru experienced a surge of rapid, unregulated urbanisation, unlike Kolkata’s slow-paced growth. To manage this, the city adopted quick fixes which included – gated parks, walled/fenced green spaces and controlled access points with regulated timings and activities.
Left Photo Credit: S. K. Dinesh Lalbagh’s Boundary Wall- Non-porous and greenery unseen to the public
Right Photo Credit: Google Earth
Urbanisation brings unique challenges for the city’s residents. In response, residents engage, express, and reclaim space to shape and survive the city. Thus, protest becomes a huge outlet for people in voicing and asserting their rights. Protest needs to be witnessed so that every citizen can comprehend and hold hands in the process of justice.
The strong Marxist-Leninist influence is the sole reason why protest is inscribed into Kolkata’s urban fabric. Protest and dissent is viewed as a ‘civic responsibility’.The R.G Kar Protest stands as a testament to this city-wide procession for women’s rights, driven not by propaganda but by a shared sense of justice.
On the other hand, Bengaluru’s Town Hall, once home to powerful public gatherings echoing with resistance songs, has moved towards restraining dissent. After the city-wide protest of Anganwadi Workers and Devanhalli Farmers 4, the Bengaluru Police Commissioner issued an order strictly containing all protests at Freedom Park, in a designated parking lot far from the public sight. Outside this zone, protest is classified as ‘civil disobedience’, drawing swift police response. Shaped by the priorities of neo-liberal governance, a city once with a vibrant political voice now struggles with a silenced public sphere.
Left Photo Credit: Bhanu S Citizens of Bengaluru protesting against confining protests to Freedom Park
Right Photo Credit: The Hindu R.G Kar ‘Reclaim the Night’ city-wide protests for women’s safety and rights
Though a riverine city, Kolkata never initially prioritised greenery due to its early urbanisation. Instead, its communist egalitarianism helped make the old streets the citizens’ ‘third space’ 5. Every space available in the exterior capable of holding people (footpath, steps of an old house, underneath a flyover, etc) becomes a place of social exchange. In Correa’s words:
“They have raised disintegration to the level of high art.” 6
The larger question which currently arises is: To what extent can you romanticise the past? This is the dilemma Kolkata is facing in shaping its public spaces for future generations. Spaces once celebrated require thoughtful revival.
In contrast, Bengaluru has been the ‘City of Lakes’ adorned with greenery, formed by encompassing two hundred villages, whose reminiscence is still present in its place names ending with ‘halli’ (village in Kannada, eg., Marathahalli, Baiyyapanahalli, etc). The rapid shift from a low-rise settlement to a high-density urban sprawl, along with the diminishing greens and lakes, makes the future of free public spaces extremely uncertain.
Left Photo Credit: X/@sahana_srik Bizarre restrictions in Public Parks of Bengaluru
Right Photo Credit: Sanat Kr Sinha Hawkers occupy the entire stretch of the footpath – no pedestrian pathways in College Street, Kolkata
A shift in political ideology exposes huge vulnerabilities in its civic spaces. The ongoing tension of the Left versus Right creates a state of duality with disjointed experiences in the city of Kolkata. Whereas, unchecked rapid neo-liberal expansion is eroding equity in Bengaluru’s public spaces.
Thus, the design of our cities cannot remain apolitical. Political indulgences are necessary to create rooted spaces which are inclusive, honouring the past, responding to the present, and accommodating the future of our cities.
“The street is a room of agreement.”1 Kahn’s quip at his AIA Gold Medal acceptance speech holds as true today as it did in 1971.
The quintessential Indian street is methodical madness personified. Heisenberg’s (1927) ‘Atomic Uncertainty Principle’ largely extends, in hypothesis, to the moving elements of the streetscape – we cannot accurately predict, at any one given moment in time, its exact nature. The street itself is occupied and claimed by numerous other independent actors and self-made processes.2
Unlike the European street model with crystal cut demarcations for motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, HMVs, etc., the Indian street also accounts for variables that cannot be monitored so closely. Livestock, street performers, street vendors, rickshaws, automobiles, pedestrians, and the like, all exist in harmonious disarray, moving at mismatched paces. Their coordination is unpractised and indeterminate, yet unanimous and accommodating.
“….there is nothing simple about that order itself, or the bewildering number of components that go into it. Most of those components are specialized in one way or another. They unite in their joint effect upon the sidewalk, which is not specialized in the least. That is its strength.” 3
Herein lies the unspoken agreements of the spaces they intend to occupy to perform their individual process. In this context it’s important to recognise that rules need not be written, nor do they result from formal legal procedures (with respect to informal interactions and space usage).4 When you enter a street, you are inevitably a part of this agreement. Fractional decisions – to swerve, to avoid, to give way, or to participate, exist in the background, and the result of these instantaneous decisions, culminate in the foreground.
The entropy of this “room of agreement” can also be observed over a larger timeline. For instance, over the course of a year, the Indian street transforms from a place of congregation, to annual festival celebrations, mourning, religious processions, etc., on a cyclical timeline.
Man in any civilization, age old, has been either actively or passively contesting for space with his neighbor. Streets are not “public goods” but “rivalrous goods.” Everyone is competing for their own space. This has transformed the Indian street into spatial slices with multiple users at any given moment in time.
How do we account for these known unknowns? The very concept is a paradox! Do we consider these minute interactions on the drawing board when we plan our cities, structure our roads and build our private homes? Are you able to recognise the unspoken agreements that you are a part of?
Fontainhas is a unique case where boundaries between private and public are blurred due to various spatial and social factors. Accredited as a UNESCO Heritage Zone in 1984, the area is known for its colourful Indo-Portuguese houses, narrow lanes, and pedestrian-friendly scale that evoke a ‘slice of European charm in India’. Fontainhas’ charm lies not only in its architectural quality but also in its scale and rhythm of everyday life. What used to be a quaint residential area with 4-5 tourists strolling reflectively is now crowded with 25-40 people at once. Tourists have increased significantly in recent years, transforming the everyday spatial interactions of the area. This contrast of everyday lived-in experience with a curated heritage image for tourism is transforming the area’s public and private boundaries.
Whether privately or publicly owned, spaces tied to heritage hold public significance, but scholars such as Kohn (2004) and Madanipour (2003) challenge this rigid binary of public and private space, suggesting instead a spectrum, where quasi-public spaces emerge1. This is defined as a privately owned area that is designed and managed to function like a public space. Streets and pathways are open and publicly accessible, yet deeply embedded in the private lives of residents. The hidden layers – stepped pathways, sloping alleys, and informal routes known only to residents add to the space’s charm. Small hawkers selling fruits and ice cream crowd the touristy lanes as residents walk to their everyday tasks. This shared use adds to the complexity of the space. According to MoHUA, in a heritage precinct, the legal status of private property can be transformed by designation, effectively making private spaces accessible to the public or subject to public oversight and regulations2.
Tourists in Fontainhas do not engage with private homes directly but through visual means by photographing thresholds and facades, and spatially by loitering outside Balcãos and doorways. The ‘public’ and ‘private’ here become extremely hard to define, but at its core, it’s different user groups’ demand for inclusion in the same space. It becomes necessary to regulate heritage areas towards harmonious and sustainable development3. What is everyday spatial interaction for residents becomes a tourist attraction through its shared but distinct use, transforming private facades into public spectacles. The everyday practices of some residents, like maintaining outdoor gardens and pathways, become an integral part that adds to the publicness of the area. While the public enjoys the aesthetic of the space, the burden of upkeep and inconveniences, such as blocked roads or loss of privacy, falls solely on residents. No incentives are provided to the owners of the heritage houses for maintenance and repairs4. This poses a larger question of who benefits from the heritage. If private spaces are put to public use without public rights and freedom, is it still a public space?
As heritage increasingly narrows its focus on tourism, space risks being frozen in time. This raises critical questions: Who is this heritage for? How does heritage blur the boundary between public and private spaces? The case of Fontainhas highlights the complex interplay of public and private realms. As urban heritage continues to expand, the balance between preservation, public enjoyment, and private life demands thoughtful governance. One that responds both to the rights of residents while acknowledging the cultural value these spaces offer to the wider public. What we need is people-first, adaptive heritage thinking5. We must advocate against freezing places in time. This means recognising that heritage values and contemporary needs are not in conflict, and in the blurring of public and private, it’s the people who make the space.
– Written by Ashmita Gupta, Senior Fellow
Footnotes:
Li, Juan, et al. “Defining the Ideal Public Space: A Perspective from the Publicness.” Journal of Urban Management, vol. 11, no. 4, Sept. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2022.08.005. ↩︎
Chapter-8 Conservation of heritage sites including heritage buildings, heritage precincts and natural feature areas. ↩︎
Conservation of Heritage Areas in the City of Panaji: A Case Study of Fontainhas Area by Shaikh Ali Ahmed, Dr. B. Shankar, IJMER, vol. 2, no. 2, Apr 2012 pp-442-446 ↩︎
The Goa (Regulation of Land Development and Building Construction) Act, and The Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulation, 2010 ↩︎
Conservation and the Indian city: Bridging the Gap, edited by Poonam V. Mascarenhas & Vinayak Bharne ↩︎
Image credits : Shab-Parak, Nagari Short Films 2024
As India’s national capital sleeps, night buses keep the city connected and their commuters find the true meaning of accessible and affordable public transport. Shab-Parak, a short film which won the silver at the Nagari 2024 awards, captures the story of Delhi Transport Corporation’s Bus 0543A from Anand Vihar Inter State Bus Terminal to Kapashera border, its tired but pleasant driver who commands his bus like a community, and its commuters many of whom are at their workplaces as the city awakens.
Q. Is it mandatory to have an architect, urban designer or a social scientist in the team?
No, it’s not required, but we strongly encourage it. Including an architect, urban planner, or social scientist can greatly enrich your project’s narrative and depth. You’re welcome to apply with your existing team, and you’ll have the flexibility to add members later if needed.
Q. Can beginners/film students apply for the competition? Asking this as the form states that one of the participants has to be an experienced filmmaker.
Yes, film students and amateur filmmakers are welcome to apply. If you check the form it mentions “prior filmmaking experience”, we have permitted entries from amateur filmmakers and film students, provided they have some experience in shooting, editing and producing film.
Q. Would we have to pay or spend from our side? If yes, then how much would that be?
Nagari provides a grant of 75,000 to each selected team. The management of costs under or beyond this grant is the responsibility of the team.
Q. How many ideas can one team apply for?
Each team is encouraged to submit only one idea. If you have more than one concept, you may submit them as separate entries.
Q. Is there a suggested or ideal number of collaborators?
It’s ideal to have one primary contact person to streamline communication and logistics. We recommend 2–3 collaborators per team. Additional team members can be brought in as needed throughout the process.
Please feel free to post your queries in the comments section below or mail us at nagari@charlescorreafoundation.org.
NAGARI 2025 aims to capture the essence of public spaces in Indian cities. Public space is defined as places that are open and accessible to everyone – this usually includes maidans, gardens, waterfronts, etc. The Indian city often broadens this definition of public space, due to its high density, to include streets, footpaths, markets, alleyways, transport infrastructure, among others. Thus our public spaces are layered by use, scale and activity, varying across days, seasons, groups, and movements. This is the public realm. It is “where a city’s culture is expressed most freely and openly, and it is where the city is at its most democratic, honest, and energetic” (Martin, 2017).
Keeping public space as the central focus, Nagari will examine the complex interactions between people from different castes, classes, age, and gender, as well as address an important question – What are the layers that constitute the public realm in urban India?
Applications for Nagari 2025 are now closed!
Public Realm in Urban India
Click on the image above to learn more about the final films
Click on the image above to learn more about the shortlisted entriesClick on the image above to view the full brief
Whether privately or publicly owned, spaces tied to heritage hold public significance. Fontainhas becomes a unique case where boundaries between private and public are blurred due to various spatial and social factors.
Cities are often perceived as consequences of planning, geography and economy. We perpetually criticise our cities, in search of more inclusive spaces but rarely do we acknowledge the powerful role of ‘political ideologies’ in shaping them.
Deepa’s documentaries and writing that span a period of forty years, engage with questions related to women’s status, political participation and resistance. Her films have been screened and awarded at national and international film festivals, and she has also served on the Jury at National and International film festivals.
Pankaj Rishi Kumar
After graduating from FTII Pune, India, in 1992, with a specialisation in Film Editing, Pankaj was assistant editor on Sekhar Kapur’s ‘Bandit Queen’. He made his first film ‘Kumar Talkies’ in 1998. Pankaj has become a one-man crew- producing, directing, shooting and editing his own films under the banner of Kumar Talkies. His films have been screened at film festivals all over the world. Pankaj also curates and teaches.
Jabeen Merchant
Jabeen Merchant is a film editor trained at the FTII Pune, with a wide experience in the mainstream industry as well as independent, art house cinema. She also teaches filmmaking and consults on scripts. Her work, which includes fiction features, documentaries, web series and short films, has been seen in countries across the world, in festivals and movie halls.
Bina Paul
Bina works mainly in Malayalam-language films. She has over fifty editing credits. Bina won her first National Film Award for Revathi’s ‘Mitr, My Friend’, which had an all-woman crew. She has been the artistic director of the International Film Festival of Kerala and in 2017 she was appointed as one of the heads of “Women Collective in Cinema”.
Sourav Sarangi
Sourav Sarangi is an award-winning film maker from India. He put down his geologist’s hammer to pick up a camera and tell stories. Stories that entertained and informed us, stories that transformed our views. His journey began from Kanthi, a small town in South Bengal, to become a fellow of the Film Independent, LA, in collaboration with The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. National and international film festivals in Berlin, Sydney, Dubai, Locarno, Nyon, Yamagata, Guangzhou, Moscow, Goa, Thessaloniki, Busan, Toronto and many more have premiered and awarded his films. Broadcasters and academic institutions found him a large global audience. “I don’t follow stories, they live in me,” says Sourav.
Rajula Shah
Rajula completed her diploma in Film Direction from FTII, Pune. She holds a masters degree in English Literature. She has been producing/ directing short films since 2000; has worked extensively in film and video, exploring the boundaries of fiction/ non-fiction, photography, video essay, & New Media Practice.
Set on the convergence of architecture and filmmaking, the competition spotlighted India’s urban mobility issues, awarding the Mumbai-centric film Sundari as the winner.
The Nagari Short Film Competition, an annual initiative by the Charles Correa Foundation, invites architecture enthusiasts, filmmakers and other creatives working on these intersections to cinematically respond to issues related to a dynamic and amorphous urban India. A “bioscope for the city”, Nagari directs focus on the frail realities of urban living in the country that surround us, often neglected, forgotten or simply ignored. Since its inception in 2020, the competition has coined themes for filmmakers to explore and respond to, including housing adequacy, people and their livelihoods, interactions with water and reclaiming urban commons. For its fifth edition, Nagari spotlighted Mobility in Urban India, emphasising topics such as connectivity and growth, choices in commotion and commute (or the lack thereof), gender and social roles, environmental impact, the people behind mobility, smart mobility and associated infrastructure, among others. While the festival saw several entries from all over the country, Sundari, directed by Sudarshan Sawant—a film capturing the social and environmental impact of Mumbai’s infrastructure development through an eponymous ferry as a fantastical vessel for storytelling—was announced as the winner, receiving the Golden Bioscope Award at the award ceremony held on December 14, 2024, in Mumbai.
Ferry at the Gateway of India in Mumbai. I Photo credit: David Brossard via Wikimedia Commons 2.0
Navi Mumbai architect Charles Correa thought a lot about ways to build efficient cities around the three key ingredients of jobs-housing-transportation, with adequate attention to social, cultural and educational institutions. The Charles Correa Foundation’s Nagari Film Festival 2024 was all about urban mobility.
Few people realize that Goa, too, is a land of five rivers: the Mandovi, Zuari, Sal, Terekhol and Chapora. This, in addition to Goa’s access to the sea routes via Mormugao and Panjim Minor ports, makes Goa one of the premier destinations for developing water-transport infrastructure in India.
Currently, ferries and bridges like the Atal Setu over the Mandovi take people across, on their way to school, work and other day-to-day activities. But there are chokepoints and limitations. For one, the bridges typically only connect the two banks where the river is the narrowest, rather than taking people as close as possible to their final destination over water. Two, as the population (domestic and tourist) grows, the pressures on infrastructure rise too.
An obvious fix, says Harvard University Graduate School of Design-trained architect Nondita Correa Mehrotra, is running water buses that can hit the sweet spot between affordability, accessibility, efficiency and lower climate impact.
Film by Sudarshan Sawant & Dhanesh Gopal Mentored by Pankaj Rishi Kumar
Jury Citation:
Sundari is poetic, moving, and touching. It beautifully intertwines everyday life with local mythologies. Through its evocative visuals and compelling soundscapes, it addresses larger questions about what happens to the natural beauty of a place that becomes the detritus of urbanization. The film looks at an important issue for the communities living in close tandem with such environmental systems. Through the use of creative narrative devices, the film evokes a sense of longing and lament while asking pertinent questions about the city’s exploding infrastructure, its relationship with nature and how we think about climate change.
Film by Sabika Syed & Nikhil Mehrotra Mentored by Pankaj Rishi Kumar
Jury Citation:
Shab-Parak’s power lies in its cinema verite form. It constructs a compelling narrative using real people’s voices and beautiful images shot live on location; instead of relying on an external storyteller’s voice. The film draws attention to a major issue, accessing the city at night, that relates not only to Delhi where this story is set, but to all urban centres. It gives us a glimpse into one of the many unnoticed worlds that exist within a city, and shows how strangers form a community through the simple act of travelling together on a late night bus.
Film by Bhargav Prasad, Archanaa Seker & Pavithra Sriram Mentored by Bina Paul
Jury Citation:
Level Up highlights a very crucial and pertinent issue that cities today need to address, that of inclusivity and accessibility. It raises important questions about urban accessibility for people with disabilities, focusing on both the physical and social discomfort faced by individuals trying to navigate the city.
The film presents its differently abled protagonists as heroes, but it does not shy away from showing their raw struggles with simple, everyday acts. The viewer is led to an understanding of the gravity of the issues they face, and the urgent need to bring about change.
Film by Arundhathi& Sarah Zia Mentored by Bina Paul
In the bustling metropolis of Delhi, lies an unused suburban rail transit network. As the city continues to deal with problems such as traffic congestion, deteriorating air quality and the lack of an integrated, multi-modal public transit system, the film talks explores the potential of the Delhi Ring Railway system as a viable public transit system. The film tells the tale of an erstwhile rail network that offered an effective and affordable alternative to travel across the city but has now gone into oblivion due to the lack of planning and support by the government.
Fathima as she waits to climb the bus | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
It has taken 20 years to implement the law seeking the introduction of low-floor buses in Tamil Nadu. On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, these Chennai filmmakers speak about capturing this wait for the Nagari Short Film Competition.
Level Up! begins with a cacophony of horns from buses in Chennai’s traffic-ridden roads. The screen announces that about three million people board this form of public transport every day. In quick succession though, the camera takes Fathima’s perspective. This person with disability can be seen hoisting herself with crutches and making the arduous climb up nearly four feet of steps on the bus to finally get to her seat. It is the only way for her to access this now free means of transportation for women in Tamil Nadu.
The short film, Avnati, tells the story of the degradation of the St. Inez Creek that flows through Panaji through the lives and memories of people around it. From an idyllic place where people recall floating paper boats, the water body is replete with sedimentation, untreated sewage and effluents, construction of hotels and so on. Its story is a microcosm of Goa’s rich network of water bodies that include the ancient khazan ecosystems and deserves to be seen and heard over and over again if the ecosystem has to be restored to its natural health.
Originating in the marshlands of Taleigao and fed by the Nagahali hills, the St Inez creek flows through the city of Panaji, tracing its geographies and drains into River Mandovi. This is not a surprise for those who are aware of Panaji’s history as a wetland before it was turned into Goa’s capital city. The creek plays a significant role in sustaining life such as draining out the water during heavy rains and bringing in the fish that sustains livelihoods.
Panaji, also known as Panjim, was possibly called Pancham Khali in which khali refers to the creeks in and around the city. The St. Inez passes through the areas of Camrabhat, Tamddi Mati Tonca, flowing behind the Military Hospital, Don Bosco School and the ESG complex. Snatches of this are seen in the documentary Avnati (Decline). which traces the decline of the creek and highlights the emotional connections of the people who live around it. Made by Kabir Naik and Kuhu Saha, the 8-minute film won the People’s Choice award in the Nagari competition last year held by the Charles Correa Foundation. Though focused on St. Inez creek, the film is a wake-up call about the wetlands across Goa.
ਮੈਂ ਤਾਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਖ੍ਲੌਂਦਾ (मैं तां नहीं खलौन्दा) I don’t run down
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Bhoond is a Punjabi word, which means wasp. This wasp-coloured vehicle is still an important option of shared transportation for low-income Punjabis. But it is on the verge of extinction. This film tries to unfurl the answer. The film portrays the story of one day of a vehicle named Bhoond @ Hanseat. This vehicle from Germany became the vehicle of villages of Punjab. It is still used by children, domestic workers, and farmers for their daily life. But why is this public-loved vehicle on extinction? Will it make any difference to the common man if it vanishes? Are there other options available in this category? Is Bhoond economical for the earth and the pocket of the common man? This film talks about these questions.
दिल्ली की आखिरी लोकल (The Last Local of Delhi)
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In the bustling metropolis of Delhi, lies an unused suburban rail transit network. As the city continues to deal with problems such as traffic congestion, deteriorating air quality and the lack of an integrated, multi-modal public transit system, the film talks explores the potential of the Delhi Ring Railway system as a viable public transit system. The film tells the tale of an erstwhile rail network that offered an effective and affordable alternative to travel across the city but has now gone into oblivion due to the lack of planning and support by the government.
LEVEL UP!
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It has taken 20 years for Tamil Nadu to include 58 low-floor buses in its fleet – the time it takes for a country to make all public transport accessible. ‘Level Up!’ is about the lives lost to these years and the long legal battle for one demand: Implement the Law.
CYCLE OF LIFE
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Cycle, which is often dismissed as a relic of the past; has been an important means of mobility and livelihood for over a century. Cycle of Life is an intimate exploration of change witnessed through the life of Umesh Sarate, an age-old cycle customer of Shinde Cycle Store, in Nagpur. He travels to the city to buy wholesale goods from the local market, as he rents a cycle from the store. The film traverses through rural-urban-industrial landscape, as it traces Umesh’s journey from the city markets to the village, where he re-sells the goods. We see him sell the goods to the women customers, while engaging in mundane conversations. As he journey’s back; he talks about buying a motorcycle, to make his travel more convenient. City lights, traffic and multi layered infrastructure of the city. Yogesh Shinde closing the cycle store at night, reflects on how the once flourishing business is now seeing a decline with time.
TOWN ON WATER
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Set against the striking backdrop of Kashmir’s Dal Lake, Town on Water dives into the pulse of movement on the water. Shikaras—more than just boats—are timeless lifelines, powering daily life and symbolizing resilience. The documentary showcases men piloting larger shikaras to support their families, while women and children steer smaller boats for chores and school trips. It explores the emerging bridges that link the lake’s mohallas, creating new paths and hinting at the shift toward modern roads initiated by the younger generation. This story highlights the tension between tradition and change, the push and pull of progress. Yet, through all the upheaval, the shikara remains, proving itself as a sustainable and unyielding force. The film invites viewers to witness a community adapting to modern twists while holding tight to a legacy that flows through the heart of Dal Lake.
Shab-Parak | The Night-Flyers
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Shab Parak explores the often unseen world of Delhi’s night travel, told through the journey of the DTC bus 0543A. The bus runs from Anand Vihar to Kapashera Border, connecting the city’s farthest corners as the rest of Delhi sleeps. The film engages with the quiet solitude of the night commute, capturing the passengers’ experiences—from the anticipation of the bus to the long, soothing journey that lulls them to sleep, and the final arrival that brings them closer to home. Amidst the quiet of the city, passengers express their unease about other nighttime transport, and Shabbir, the bus driver, speaks of his sense of responsibility and care toward the travellers. Shab Parak offers a glimpse into the night bus service as an essential lifeline for a city that never truly sleeps—sustaining both its people and its heartbeat through the darkest hours.
SUNDARI
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In Mumbai, once an island city connected by the sea, modern bridges and land reclamation have reshaped its landscape, disrupting the lives of its original communities. Sundari follows the myth of a legendary ferryboat, once the heart of connectivity, who guided people across creeks long before bridges existed. Now, Sundari lives on only in songs and stories, her memory overshadowed by urbanisation. Through the perspectives of a woman recounting Sundari’s tale, an ageing ferry operator who runs the Versova-Madh ferry, and a young child witnessing the changes, the film explores how progress, while practical, has disconnected a community bound by tradition and the sea.
साखळ्या आणि चाकं- Sakhlya Ani Chaaka (Chains & Wheels)
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The bicycles of Pune City talk.
They talk about their existence and their purpose.
The city, its chaotic traffic and its lackluster infrastructure looms over them. In the motor-centric city plans; the working-class people of Pune and their bicycles look to reclaim their place on the roads. The people who seem to be a part of the urban transportation plans- but only on paper.
The bicycles of Pune City talk.
They talk of the labour class and revolutions.
Cowboys of the West (UP)
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The film ‘cowboys of the west (UP)’ explores the everydayness of travel for informal milk suppliers (locally called Doodhiyas) from small towns and villages that surround Delhi. As Delhi’s urban spaces continue to saturate with people and things, the demand for essential commodities such as milk keep on increasing. Doodhiyas play a crucial role in forming a link between immediate rural and the urban through the supply of milk. Moreover the film primarily focuses on the train journeys undertaken by a group of Doodhiyas, and sheds light on how travelling together everyday produces a sense of mobility which is intertwined with the sense of home, affective relationships with co-passengers and the work that demands bodily labour. As the sense of everyday envelopes these lives in shuttling migration, this film is intended as a pause to observe how Doodhiyas from peripheries of Delhi make meaning of their travel.
Iss shahar mein chalte hue (While walking through the city)
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Through the dug up streets of suburban Mumbai, a migrant salesman, Taufique walks everyday with a bicycle filled with bread, eggs and snacks. This film journeys with him and his colleagues as they walk through chawls and gated societies, beneath metro constructions and through unyielding traffic, revealing a glimpse of a Mumbai where walking is not a choice but a necessity.
The film expands into a quiet reflection on urban design and social division, questioning who our cities are truly built for. We see others like Taufique walking on Mumbai’s streets, on journeys marked by labour, resilience and quiet strength.
The film tries to notice the presence of those forced to move on foot as they reclaim agency, in a city that often makes them invisible.
Homes on the Line
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Rohtak, a busy city, now has a new 4.5-kilometer elevated railway track. It’s an impressive structure that promises faster travel and economic growth. But beneath the joy, there’s a sad truth: this track was built on land where homes once stood, forcing families, who have lived here for generations, to leave. While life moves on above the bridge, the pain and struggles of those who lost their homes are often ignored. Through personal stories and images, this story reveals the hidden cost of progress, asking if true development is possible when so many people are left behind.
The film ‘Cut the Cord’ explores the fate of Bhoond/tempo, the option of shared transport. A crucial transportation mode for many low-income Punjabis, the tempo faces a potential decline due to lack of supportive policies
थानै कठै जाणो?
Where do you want to go?
The film ‘थानै कठै जाणो?’ explores the challenges and resilience of female bus conductors in Rajasthan roadways, navigating between demanding duties, societal constraints and future hopes.
The Delhi Local
The film ‘The Delhi Local’ is an oral history of the now defunct ring railway system presented through the eyes of its erstwhile users and operators. Infrastructural neglect and decay being the key themes.
Level Up!
Rajiv Rajan’s dream to commute independently on his wheelchair and the long legal battle for low-floor buses is the core of the film ‘Level up’. The film features Rajiv and his loved ones and explores themes of universal design and barrier-free public transport.
The Cycle of Life
The film ‘The Cycle of Life’ traverses rural-urban landscape with Umesh, who travels to Nagpur in ST bus, as he rents a cycle to buy goods from the local market. And his journey, back to his village to sell the goods.
Town on Water
Beyond the tourist gaze, “Town on Water” unveils the hidden stories of Kashmir’s Hanji community, water dwellers whose lives are intertwined with the lake’s changing tides, battling rapid urbanisation and its impact.
A City Waiting
How do people move at night? The film ‘A City Waiting’ explores how essential the night bus system is to the national capital, a city that never sleeps through the lens of the passenger, the bus driver, and those who wait only to leave.
Sundari
The film Sundari follows the story of a ferry riding family in Madh Koliwada facing disruption from a new bridge construction. The legend of Sundari, a fabled boatwoman, echoes their struggle for survival.
साखळ्या आणि चाके
Sakhlya Ani Chaake (Chains & Wheels)
The roads of Pune don’t support the working-class people, for whom a bicycle is the only mode of commute. The film ‘साखळ्या आणि चाके’ looks at the lives of these people who are not a part of the urban transportation plans.
Cowboys of the West (UP)
The film ‘Cowboys of the West (Up)’ aims to document the everyday lives of informal milk suppliers to Delhi. Through their journey the film hopes to explore notions of mobility, networks and space.
Walking with Abdul
Through Abdul, a migrant salesman walking across the suburbs of Western Mumbai selling eggs, bread and snacks stacked upon a bicycle, the film ‘Walking with Abdul’ explores walking as a forced mobility inside a city.
Homes on the Line
In the film ‘Homes on the Line’ an elevated railway track celebrates progress above, while beneath it unfolds a moving tale of displacement and emotional loss.
