Milind Chhabra

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Explorations will delve into a multiform inquiry into the Najafgarh drain in Delhi, juxtaposing its current ecological reality in the form of a sonic photo-essay, with an experimental play about the historical figure of Mirza Najaf Khan. Milind Chhabra is the Coordinator for this project. 

Milind Chhabra is a filmmaker, writer, and editor based in Mumbai and Delhi, who is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, where he completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Screenwriting (Film, TV, Web Series) from 2022 to 2024, building upon his BA (Honours) in English from Hansraj College, Delhi University (2015-2018), where he was active in theatre. Milind's skills are comprehensive in post-production, including Film Editing, Sound Designing, Photography, and Cinematography. He was creatively involved in films like the 27-minute documentary What Is It But A Dream? (2025) and the fiction film Dopahar Ki Ice Cream (2025), where he served in multiple key roles such as Director, Editor, Cinematographer, and Sound Designer. Beyond his creative practice, Chhabra is actively involved in film education, working as a Film Facilitator at Lighthouse Academy, where he teaches storytelling through mobile filmmaking to young adults in Mumbai. He also previously worked as a Media Professional for SPS Community Media, creating documentaries, podcasts, and photo-essays. Given his experience, Milind Chhabra is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

The project Searching for Najafgarh will be an exploratory, multiform inquiry that will resist premature narrative closure on the complex urban phenomena of the polluted Najafgarh drain in Delhi. Moving beyond a traditional feature screenplay, the artist will seek to find new ways of engagement by focusing on two lines of inquiry: one ecological and lens-based, the other historical and theatrical. The ecological aspect of the project involves creating a sonic photo-essay by photographing and recording sounds along the drain to capture its current material reality. This approach treats the drain not merely as a polluted site but as a character in itself. 

The historical aspect of the project involves conceptualising a play based on the life of Mirza Najaf Khan, the 18th-century noble after whom the area is named. This theatrical collaboration, informed by the artist's street theatre background and guided by a playwright, will use video documentation to explore the emotional texture of Najaf Khan’s life. By deliberately juxtaposing the drain's current ecological state with the history of the man who named it, the project aims to search for something between them through material, images, sounds, and performance. The exploration is intended to inform a future film while also potentially extending the work into mediums like video art, photobooks, or installations.

The outcome of the project will be photography and sound captures leading to a sonic photo-essay, and an experimental play. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the audio-visual documentation of the artistic process and a sonic photo-essay.   

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice programme in the manner in which it attempts to traverse between multiple art forms, while trying to capture the contemporary ecological reality through the fate of an urban drain, which will be charged as a space through the fictional imagination on the historical character of a Mughal commander, whose spectrality will activate the play in this Exploration. 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm by convening an online gathering of artists coordinating Explorations projects. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees. 

This project is supported by Parijat Foundation.