SPOTLIGHT | A Film Studio making Civics Entertaining and Accessible
Written by Hina Siddiqui, Queer Neurodivergent Transmedia Storyteller who works with Comics, Games and Podcasts and has several special interests that she regularly writes about
A still from Civic Studio’s award-winning short film that deals with gender based violence and the legal systemI’ve worked in the creative sector for most of my career. I know the journey of creative start-ups that want to develop and retain their own voice can be… uphill… to say the least. I also know that there are very few indie studios and production houses that are womxn-led. So, of course, when I heard of Civic Studios founded in 2019 by Anushka Shah, I wanted to know more. And as luck would have it, my curiosity led me to learn about one very cool organization that is doing a great job of telling our stories in a way that makes us care.
Civic Studios makes, develops and funds stories at the intersection of entertainment and civil society.
And no, they are not just another commercial production house making films that generate a lot of controversy without actually getting to the core of the issues they claim to address.
Probably Relevant Side-Note: I am of course not the best person to wax eloquent on films of this nature. But for a more nuanced look at films, the representation of class, caste and gender issues and a lot more insight on how the industry often gets things wrong with all the right intentions, do check out the discourse on films and social impact by Feminism in India and The Women of Cinema.
The name actually says it all. In an interview with SugarMint, founder Anushka Shah explained, “If you look up the academic definition [of the word] Civics, it is the study of rights & duties. Our vision at Civic Studios was to make it the practice of your rights and duties.” The aim at Civic Studios is to tell stories that not just inform or even emotionally engage the audience, but to empower action. They do this through studio productions of long-form content, a homegrown YouTube channel and a research hub that brings together a collective of diverse minds to deliver the most authentic stories backed by thorough data analysis.
The studio is based in Mumbai but its own story began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The idea of the studio and its mission was born when Anushka was working as a research fellow at MIT’s Centre for Civic Media. The project was further incubated at the MIT Media Lab, a unique transdisciplinary platform that focuses on engaging people through creative experiences integrating art, science, design, and engineering. They started out with their YouTube channel - Pocket Change - that uses short-form Hindi story-telling to engage young people in India around subjects like job security, dysfunctional families, social media and the influencer life, laws that affect them as well as songs that are simply #mood.
With series ranging from family drama, police comedies as well as socio-political comic sketches - Pocket Change has gone on to amass over 75k followers with nearly 200 videos.
The Research Hub informs all storytelling at Civic Studios. But is it also a resource centre for anyone looking to know more, take action and even learn how to make films for social impact. All of these are available to access on their website.
Probably Relevant Side-Note: As someone with a keen interest in true crime and the depiction of victims, survivors and criminals in stories I found their interactive report on Crime and Punishment In Indian Entertainment particularly engrossing. It compares a wide range of media - from Crime Patrol to Jolly LLB - and gives ua a map of not just how the narratives of crime function in them but also how they impact audiences. I highly recommend a dekkho.
Anushka Shah, founder of Civic StudiosThe core values of the studio are heavily informed by Anushka’s work and educational background. She has a graduate degree in Government & Economics from the London School of Economics and a masters from New York University in Applied Statistics. She has worked closely with news organizations, journalists and non-profits in India and even in policy design and electoral campaigns. Her work can be found in the the Washington Post, NPR, The Wire and The Huffington Post. But mostly the evidence lies in the process their studio productions follow.
The Civic Studio Production ProcessThey released a webseries in 2022 - Yeh Saali Naukri which deals with government jobs and small town aspirations and the threat of unemployment that hangs over all our heads in these uncertain times.
And this year has started strong with Vakeel Babu - a short film that takes a look at the way the legal system in India deals with survivors of domestic abuse and gender-based violence.
Told through the story of Shiraz Hassan - a young lawyer who has found fame on YouTube as the woke VakeelBabu and the various women he interacts with - his mother, a retired advocate, students who come to him for guidance and the two women whose cases he handles. Starring celebrated Gujarati and Hindi theatre actor Bhamini Oza Gandhi, and Abhishek Banerjee of Paatal Lok and Bhediya fame - this film is 22 minutes of some very clever writing rooted in our times, a crystal clear message sans the melodrama.
This film in a lot of ways, is essential viewing for lawyers and law students. In fact, the first thing I did when I finished watching it was ask my daughter, who is currently studying law, to watch it as well so that we could discuss it together.
Panel discussion after the screening at NLU, DelhiBut Civic Studios is also holding public screenings and engagement sessions in various cities with the specific objective of reaching out to law students, young lawyers and even the aam junta to drive conversation around the essential role lawyers play in the lives of clients seeking justice against gender based violence, specifically domestic violence. Screenings are followed by panel discussions with people like human rights lawyer Kawalpreet Kaur, women’s rights activist Khadija Farooqui, gender violence counsellor and author Rashmi Anand, and Deeksha Gujaral, India Program Director of legal justice NGO iProbono and co-writer of popular legal drama Guilty Mind.
So, watch this film and check out the other work by Civic Studios! And once you do, definitely tell us what you think. And if you like what you see (which we pretty much guarantee you will) follow Civic Studios for more amazing stories that make a difference!