Anand Patwardhan

Patwardhan was born on 18 February 1950, in Bombay, Bombay State.^[4] He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature at Mumbai University in 1970, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Brandeis University in 1972^[5] and a Master of Arts in Communications at McGill University in 1982.^[6][7] He is a member of the Oscar Academy.^[8]

Virtually all of Patwardhan's documentary films have faced censorship from the Indian government, eventually being cleared after legal action. His film Bombay: Our City was shown on TV after a four-year court case,^[9] while Father, Son, and Holy War (1995) was adjudged in 2004 as one of 50 most memorable international documentaries of all time by DOX, Europe's leading documentary film magazine. Father, Son, and Holy War was shown on India's National Network, Doordarshan, only in the year 2006, 11 years after its making, after a prolonged court battle that lasted 10 years and ended with the nation's Supreme Court ordering the network to telecast the film without any cuts.^[10]

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), refused to certify his next film, War and Peace, released in 2002. The board demanded 21 cuts before it would be certified.^[11] Patwardhan took the government to court, leading to the film being banned for over a year.^[12] However, after a court battle, Patwardhan won the right to screen his film without a single cut.^[13][14][15] As with his previous films, Patwardhan also successfully fought to force a reluctant national broadcaster, Doordarshan, to show this film on their national network. It was commercially released in multiplexes in 2005.^[16]

His 2011 documentary, Jai Bhim Comrade, was based on a police firing incident against Dalits at Ramabai Colony in Mumbai in 1997. The film, which took 14 years to complete, is considered by many to be a watershed in Patwardhan's long career.^[17] In 2013, the Sheffield International Film Festival honoured Patwardhan with an Inspiration Award.^[18] In 2014, the Mumbai International Film Festival honoured him with the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award.^[19][20]

Upon being asked in a BFI interview to deliver a message for future documentary filmmakers, Patwardhan famously replied: "No message really. Do it only if it burns when you don't."^[21]

As a student, Patwardhan was an activist, involved in the Anti-Vietnam War movement, United Farm Workers Union and Bihar Movement.^[5][7] In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Patwardhan signed an open letter published in Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.^[22][23][24]

In June 2026, Patwardhan wrote an op-ed against the blockage by India's Central Board of Film Certification of the film The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025), a film about the killing of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl, by the Israel Defense Forces. In the piece, he described Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide, and hoped for the Indian government to distance itself from Israel.^[25]