Maharashtra

Neelambari Bhattacharya


Project Period: Eight months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Explorations that will involve two women filmmakers to explore a Zubaan-published story on witchcraft titled Cast Out authored by Samhita Arni, by developing a distinct design vocabulary through a collaborative process of experimental storytelling. The outcome of the project will be the pre-production process of the animation film adaptation of the fictional piece. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a pre-visualisation bible, (including the design aesthetic, visual script, soundscape) and a learning document, as a compendium of the artistic process in this interdisciplinary collaboration. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, materials, hire of equipment, and subscription of software services. 

Apoorva Raghunathan Iyengar


Project Period: One year

For the Foundation Project implemented by IFA which will facilitate research towards challenging the traditional museum catalogue to design one or more decks of 52 cards - a kind of ‘pocket museum’ - created as a game that would be a tool for curatorial reimagination of the collection at the regional gallery at the Bihar Museum, Patna. The outcomes of the project will be these decks of cards with possible interactive screens and QR codes to aid visitors to curate their own exhibitions digitally, a reference map, and a digital rendition of the game that can be played remotely. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be the set of physical cards, samples of visitor curated digital exhibitions, the reference map and the digital version of the game, along with recordings of workshops conducted for in-house curators and visitors. This is a collaboration with the Bihar Museum. Project funds will pay for contract fees, printing and pre-production.

Poonam Gautam Jain


Project Period: One year and ten months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will explore the politics of hierarchies and erasures of languages through a study of five scripts namely Mahajani, Modi lipi, Tamil numerals, Devanagari and Kannada. Titled Degrees of Exclusion of Languages, this project will attempt to understand linguistic divide as a core dimension of the national education enterprise and a crucial axis of negotiation within our public domain and democracy. It will explore cultural dilemmas and strategies of survival that languages have struggled with. The outcomes from this project will be a set of three-dimensional physical and digital letterpress moveable types for all the five scripts, letterpress prints, lithographs on paper, and a booklet that catalogues all the letters in these scripts in the form that they have existed so far. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the digital models, a set of physical letterpress types, copies of the lithographs, copies of the letterpress prints and the catalogue will be the deliverables from this project to IFA.  Project funds will pay for materials, contract fees, studio hire, travel and living. 

Mohit Prakash Shelare


Project Period: Eight months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Explorations, which will examine how the trauma of seeing violent imagery online including on social media can be sublimated through drawing by hand. As a critique of the desensitisation caused by the incessant consumption of online images including those of violence, the project will explore how the aspects of materiality and time in drawing these images by hand transform their resonance and politics. The outcomes of the project will be a series of drawings and lecture performances. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a documentation of the drawings and lecture performances, along with screen recordings and videos created during the process. Project funds will pay for materials, consumables, professional fees, software subscriptions and honorarium.

Miriam Chandy Menacherry


Grant Period: One year and six months

For research to explore and compile the personal stories of a tenacious group of women producers, directors, writers and film technicians working in Mollywood in Kerala, a film industry dominated by men. The project will construct vivid and contrasting accounts of the Women in Cinema Collective as they defiantly challenge rules of commercial cinema in the state. The outcome of this project will be a manuscript for a book and an installation. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be the manuscript and audiovisual documentation generated during the fieldwork. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, professional fees, travel, food and living costs, equipment rental, consumables and an accountant’s fee.  

Keshav Waghmare


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation project by IFA, which will result in an audio-visual documentation titled Influential Shahirs: Narratives from Marathwada, an archive of eight shahirs – poet performers - four men and four women in Maharashtra. These shahirs inspired by Dr B R Ambedkar’s ideals of social revolution, have been a source of great inspiration for the masses and their songs have helped to sustain the Dalit movement in the rural areas of the region. Yet little is known about the poets or the compositions, as their work has been completely ignored by the mainstream establishment. This project seeks to recognise, acknowledge and archive their work and their role in the promotion and sustenance of a long socio-political movement. The outcome will be a series of eight articles and eight audio/video recordings of live performances. The Principal Investigator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the eight articles, the audio/video recordings and transcripts of the songs. This is a collaboration with the People’s Archive of Rural India - PARI. Project funds will pay for honorarium, travel, stationery and books and resources. 

Shruthi Vishwanath


Grant Period: Four months

For a series of artistic engagements where womxn artists, rural and urban, will inhabit cyberspace at midnight for 25 nights, through live and pre-recorded videos of their performances, conversations and feminist readings. The theme of these sessions will be to celebrate occupying space and claiming agency. The outcomes of the project will be these sessions and a condensed five-minute video. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the recordings of the 25 sessions and the five-minute video. Grant funds will pay for professional fees and honorarium. 

Deb Kamal Ganguly


Grant Period: Four months

For the excavation of decades of email archives, and interviews with the excavators, in an attempt to trace human journeys through its digital footprints over the years. The outcome of the project will be a creative essay made using excerpts of emails, images and graphic attachments. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be audio and video recordings of interviews and the creative essay. Grant funds will pay for professional fees, honorarium, materials, communication and stationery.

Kaamna Patel


Grant Period: Four months

For a photography-based exploration of notions of nostalgia, temporality, hyperreality and alienation in the age of technology and the internet. Based on the itinerary for a seven-day tour to Japan that never happened due to the pandemic, the project uses multiple visual devices to photographically simulate the tour. The outcome of the project will be a set of still images. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be these still images. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, printing and scanning, materials and equipment hire.

Subuhi Jiwani


Grant Period: Four months

For the making of a short film exploring urban India’s engagement with online dating. Drawing from interviews with men and women across different Indian cities, online research and the grantee’s personal experiences, the project intends to weave together stories of four protagonists and their quests on dating apps. The outcome of this grant will be the short film. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will also be the short film. Grant funds will pay for honorarium and professional fees.

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