Khabar Lahariya, the country's only rural, women-led media collective, claimed on Monday that its image in the Oscar-nominated documentary "Writing With Fire" is "inaccurate." "Writing With Fire," directed by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, follows the emergence of Khabar Lahariya, a digital-only rural news channel managed by Dalit women.
The film, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary (Feature) category at the 94th Academy Awards, follows an ambitious group of Dalit women – led by Meera, their main reporter – as they transition from print to digital in order to stay relevant.
Khabar Lahariya said in a lengthy blog post ahead of the Oscars on March 28 that the documentary, which the team recently saw, depicts only a portion of their tale, "and part stories have a way of misrepresenting the whole sometimes." Thomas and Ghosh were unavailable for comment on the article.
"The film is a moving and powerful document, but its presentation of Khabar Lahariya as an organisation with a particular and consuming focus of reporting on one party and the mobilisation around this, is inaccurate. We recognise the prerogative of independent filmmakers to present the story that they choose to, but we would like to say that this eclipses the kind of work and the kind of local journalism we have done for twenty years, the reason we are different from other mainstream media of our times. It is a story which captures a part of ours, and part stories have a way of distorting the whole sometimes," the post read.
The organisation claims that their staff, which is led by Dalits but includes Muslims, OBC, and upper-caste women, is dedicated to practising objective journalism and isn't merely a "heartwarming success tale." The crew claims that the documentary's journalistic values are not "reflected" in the film, which has made waves at international film festivals.
"In our 20 years of practising independent journalism, it has been a foundational value to be deliberate about how and who we include in the frame or story, about corroboration, about multiple perspectives. These values are not reflected in the version of ourselves we see in the film. And so, to people all over the world who are watching us, maybe even hero-ing us, we want to say that ours has not just been the easy-to-digest, heartwarming story of the small figure talking back to the big powers in a time of political change."
According to Khabar Lahariya, the organisation has endured 20 years of financial uncertainty, reporting on domestic violence, finding their way out of difficult situations, and "wading through mounds of FIRs." "And in our 20 years of doing this unglamorous work, we have not known if we would survive another week, or month, or year. Even as we speak, and as some of our stories reach the glitz of Academy Awards luncheon parties – we feel the same vulnerability." Calling out the documentary for its apparent rosy representation of caste, the organisation said, "We have not, as the film would have one believe, been able to carry our caste identities on our sleeves, with bravado and humour. We have had to be discreet, often fearful. We have not emerged from a vacuum, but from long decades of ground work, on empowerment, on literacy, on digital access... When we go away for office offsites – this is mostly what we discuss, not just the way we feel when a particular party wins an election – which is what you’d take away from the film."
Khabar Lahariya stated that the team intends to discuss more about "what makes women-led, autonomous rural media feasible – which is a lot more nuanced tale than the one heading to the Oscars" as the team "unexpectedly" makes itself recognised all over the world with the film.
