Agar wo Desh Banati (If She Built a Country)

Rural, Adivasi, working women from the villages of Chhattisgarh critique the grand narrative of development, envisaging a more just and equitable paradigm. Awarded at Thrissur and screened at Ithaca, Kolkata, Madurai and Trivandrum.

Directed by Maheen Mirza | 2018
Producer and Commissioning Editor: Rajiv Mehrotra

Maheen Mirza is a cinematographer and has worked with several organisations and peoples’ movements on socio-political and educational issues and has made fiction and documentary films across the country. She is a part of Ektara collective, a strong proponent of the independent cinema movement that seeks to build inclusive and collective cultural spaces. She has been a part of the scripting and cinematography of Jaadui Machchi and Turup, among others.

Rajiv Mehrotra is the founding Managing Trustee and Commissioning Editor of PSBT - his films have won more than 300 awards worldwide, including 32 in 31 years from the President of India. His nine books are available in 50 languages and editions. He serves as the Trustee/ Secretary of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility of HH the Dalai Lama (For more, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_M....

PSBT is a not-for-profit that has nurtured and supported the production of independent documentary films by a diversity of filmmakers from across India. Over two decades, it has produced close to 700 documentary films, each film averaging two film festival selections and every second film an award. (Read more here: www.psbt.org, https://www.civilsocietyonline.com/ci..., https://psbt.org/wp-content/uploads/2..., https://www.thehindu.com/features/cin..., https://psbt.org/wp-content/uploads/2...)

PSBT is led by some of India's iconic film personalities - Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Sharmila Tagore, with Fali Nariman and Kiran Karnik. From its inception in 2000, Tulika Srivastava was a key member of the Team, joined in 2005, by Ridhima Mehra.

Credits
Associate Director: Rinchin
Editor: Puloma Pal
Researcher, Script Writer, Cinematographer: Maheen Mirza
Location Sound Recordists: Pushpa Rawat, Priyanka Gaikwad
Sound Designer, Mixer: Bigyna Bhushan Dahal

Produced by PSBT, for and in partnership with Doordarshan India.
http://www.psbt.org/; http://www.ddindia.gov.in/

For festival and screening queries, please write to us at distribution@psbt.org

Last updated: June 2020