Three women, smartphones & a thirst for truth

As Writing with Fire competes at the Oscars, filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh look back on why they decided to follow three Dalit journalists for five years

Six years ago, when New Delhi-based filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh attended a meeting at the Khabar Lahariya office in Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, they had no idea how deeply engaged they would soon get with the lives and work of the women journalists there.

And they definitely wouldn’t have guessed that the narrative they were about to weave into a documentary would one day premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it would win two awards — followed by similar accolades at several other festivals — and eventually receive an Oscar nomination in the Best Documentary category. It is a first for a feature length documentary produced and directed by Indian filmmakers.

Thomas and Ghosh’s film, Writing with Fire, is the remarkable story of Khabar Lahariya (Waves of News), the only Indian media organisation run by Dalit women — operating in small towns and rural areas of the Hindi belt, where patriarchy rules — as they attempt to move from print to digital journalism. Shot over five years, it is a story of determined journalists, some mothers and others single, and their commitment to press freedom. (Interestingly, as UP goes to polls, we can circle back to the women’s coverage of the 2017 elections on screen.)

“Journalism is the essence of democracy,” Meera Devi, one of the protagonists in the film, says. She is also the first Khabar Lahariya journalist whom Thomas, 35, and Ghosh, 39, were drawn to, when they observed the women at the meeting six years ago. “When citizens demand their rights, it is us journalists who can take their demands to the government. The journalists must use this power responsibly. Otherwise, media will become like any other business.”

As you watch the film, you realise Meera and her colleagues never back away from a story, not even when it entails investigating a project like 2014’s Swachh Bharat Mission, which promised every household in the country access to a toilet. While one woman they interview reveals the shame of still having to relieve herself outside, another calls the declaration made in 2019 — that rural India is open defecation free — “a lie”.

This is not a victim story

Meera is a natural leader, Thomas says. She and Ghosh were also fascinated by the energy of Suneeta Prajapati, who is in love with print and reluctant to switch to digital. A former child miner turned reporter, she questions everything and does not take anything at face value. Shyamkali Devi, a domestic-abuse survivor, is the third journalist they focus on — a timid woman who is much quieter than her peers.