How recent films show the unravelling of digital India
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Three recently released films hone in on the troubling realities of an increasingly digital India, committing to screen the anxiety that spikes every time we glance at ours. Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2, CTRL and Dream Girl—a segment of American horror anthology V/H/S/ Beyond—all see fame as a Faustian bargain, in which the internet grants people a bigger platform than ever, but they’ve never been made to feel smaller, reduced to view counts, their choices determined by algorithms.
Being watched never translates to being seen or understood, and everyone is always performing, whether or not the cameras are on. “In 20-30 years, we’ll be looking at social media the way we look at smoking now," says CTRL director Vikramaditya Motwane.
“It’s so unhealthy. We’ll wonder how we ever let our kids use smartphones and develop that need for online validation." If the Timur Bekmambetov-produced American screenlife thrillers Missing (2023) and Searching (2018) argue that you can’t really know someone until you track their digital footprint, then CTRL, which he also executive produced, is both a counterpoint to and extension of that idea—that the natural consequence of a life lived online is that everyone thinks they know you.
When influencer Nella (Ananya Panday) confronts her cheating boyfriend Joe (Vihaan Samat) over livestream, the comments are predictably hurtful. Frustrated, she signs over control of her life to the app CTRL, but really should’ve read the terms and conditions more carefully, a conclusion backed by conversations Motwane had with the Internet Freedom
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