News and other battles: Vinay Shukla on ‘While We Watched’

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While We Watched, which premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and won International Competition at DocPoint Helsinki 2023, follows Kumar between 2018 and 2020 at NDTV, a time when the channel and he were under fire from the government. It’s a thorough vérité document, rough around the edges, rather different from Shukla’s previous documentary, An Insignificant Man(2016), which tracked the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party. The buoyancy of that film is replaced by bleakness and pessimism, with Kumar targeted by right-wing trolls and seeing one colleague after another depart.

We spoke to Shukla over video call about the process of filming, the decline of primetime news, and the streaming release of the film on MUBI. Edited excerpts: He didn’t take too much convincing. But your relationship is tentative throughout.

Very often people use the word trust, but I don’t think trust applies fully. It takes time. On certain days you have phenomenal access and on other days you have none.

Every day is a dance. Some days you know you shouldn’t be shooting what you’re seeing. When I met Ravish, he said, you convince the NDTV management, then we’ll talk.

NDTV had never given anyone permission; they were a legacy news network who’d never allow a camera to roam freely on their floor. Full credit to them, though, they gave me access very quickly. I went to Ravish and told him, they agreed, what do you say? From there onwards, there was some figuring out before we could start: who all are involved, how much time… It’s not a format I like.

There are some people who do great interviews. I haven’t mastered that art yet. I grew up the quiet one amongst my friends and family.