Mitti: A film that deals with farmer issues

Farmers are the backbone of our country and we all depend upon agriculture to meet the requirement of food. Though they feed the entire humanity, their lives are in danger of many issues.

According to statistics, every 30 minutes, a farmer commits suicide in our country. In an attempt to help farmers to overcome their issues, Hyderabad-based-award-winning-filmmaker Anshul Sinha made a film ‘Mitti-Back to the Roots’ which talks about 27 major issues of farmers and provide practical solutions.

“I directed several films on various issues of society. In India, for every 30 minutes, one farmer commits suicide due to several problems in the agrarian field.

I decided to do something for farmers and started doing research about farmer issues in the country by visiting a lot of villages in India under the guidance of Dr GV Ramanjaneyulu, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad. As a filmmaker, I decided to make an effort for farmers from my side and made this film,” said Anshul Sinha.

Sharing the story of the film, Anshul said “Mitti is the story of a young agricultural scientist ‘Ekta’ who tries to understand the crisis in the farm sector and explores alternative paths. This is the story of a village which was put up for sale, a story of farmers who lost their lives chasing the dreams of big yields.

It is the story of a village which gained freedom from all the clutches. The film is a result of more than a year research on the farm crisis, farmer suicides, pesticide poisoning, land grab and several other issues pushing farming into crisis. The film portrays 27 major issues pushing farming into crisis,” In the film, Anshul is showcasing 27 major agrarian issues of India. He also showcased practical solutions to all the issues.

“Until today, these practical solutions have been implemented in many villages and yield great results. We are highlighting the success stories of those villages in the film to inspire more farmers to adopt these policies,” shared Anshul.

Anshul opined that pesticide seeds, a huge amount of loans and water crisis are the major issues of farmers and added that tenant and marginalised farmers are the greatest victims of suicides. “There are thousands of crops in India in which only 2 crops ‘Wheat and Rice’ are given proper pricing. The Indian Government is taking care of only 24 out of 1000 crops in the country. This is also one of the reasons for farmers suicides,” informs Anshul.

Anshul said that it took one year for him to complete the film and was shot at Enabavi, the first Organic Village of the country, which is 100km away from Hyderabad. He also informed that he made the film with crowdfunding of more than 120 people.

“We screened this film for 38 times in the city and 12 times in the USA, and also screened it in almost 10 other Indian states. After every screening, we ask audience if they are interested to screen the same at their locality so it reachs more people.

I approached all renowned distributors in the film industry for the film release, but no one comes forward to help. At present, we are waiting for the CBFC certificate and looking for sponsors and planning to screen it all over the country,” shares Anshul Sinha.

He concluded, “The film is now available in Hindi with English subtitles and we plan to dub it to local languages to reach more people. I believe this film will connect farmers problems with the urban audience,”

What: Mitti- Back to the Roots film screening
Where: Phoenix Arena
When: April 20 from 3:45 pm