Jan 07 2026 to Jan 07 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

80 minutes | English & Marathi with English subtitles | India | 2025

Scholarship and resistance bridged by love.

A documentary that traces the shared journey of US-born Indian sociologist and Dalit rights activist Dr. Gail Omvedt and activist-intellectual Dr. Bharat Patankar, this film situates their personal story within the larger arc of India’s socio-political movements. Charting Omvedt’s path from America to western Maharashtra, her deep engagement with Dalit-Bahujan politics, and a life of thought and action shaped alongside Patankar, Gail & Bharat brings out the personal in the political.

Set largely in Kasegaon, where the couple lived and worked for decades, the film foregrounds voices and struggles long ignored by mainstream media and academia. It reflects Omvedt’s seminal contributions to anti-caste studies and her role in building global intellectual conversations around Phule and Ambedkar, while also capturing Patankar’s grassroots leadership through movements for land, water, and dignity. Tender, political, and quietly moving, the documentary preserves the legacy of two organic intellectuals whose lives blurred the boundaries between scholarship, activism, and everyday care.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with filmmaker Somnath Waghmare, and subsequently a Q&A with the audience.

In collaboration with:

Speakers

Somnath Waghmare
Documentary Filmmaker
Somnath Waghmare is a Mumbai based documentary filmmaker and researcher. He completed his M. Phil from TISS Mumbai, Masters in Media and communication from Pune University and BA Sociology in Marathi medium from Shivaji University Kolhapur. He has previously worked as a contract employee at the Film & Television Institute of India Pune and was an apprentice with Amnesty International,India.

His filmography includes –  Chaityabhumi (2024), I am not a Witch ( 2015), The Battle Bhima Koregaon: An Unending Journey (2017), Memories of Mangaon (2022), There is no caste discrimination in IITs?(2023), and short docu Mahaupasak – Yashwant Painter (2025) a film on the life of Dalit artist Yashwant Painter, who has spent the last 50 years of his life creating Dalit Buddhist visual culture in the border district of Maharashtra-Karnataka through poetry, music, paintings, and sculptures.
Somnath Waghmare is a Mumbai-based documentary filmmaker and researcher. He holds an M.Phil. from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, a master’s degree in media and communication from Savitribai Phule Pune University, and a B.A. in sociology (Marathi medium) from Shivaji University, Kolhapur. He has worked at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and was an apprentice with Amnesty International, India. His films include Chaityabhumi (2024),  I Am Not a Witch (2015), The Battle of Bhima Koregaon: An Unending Journey (2017), Memories of Mangaon (2022), There Is No Caste Discrimination in IITs? (2023), and Maha-Upasak – Yashwant Painter (2025). He is the co-founder of the Ambedkar Age Digital Bookmobile and founder of Begampura Production, to document Indian Dalit stories via film.

Sudipto Mondal
Investigative Journalist
Sudipto Mondal is a Bengaluru-based investigative journalist and serves as Executive Editor at The News Minute. With nearly two decades of reporting experience, his work has consistently examined caste, communalism, and corruption in India. He has written for The Hindu, Hindustan Times, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Print, The News Minute, and Newslaundry. Known for his rigorous field reporting and long-form investigations, Mondal’s journalism foregrounds structural inequities and the realities of marginalised communities, contributing to wider public conversations on democracy, accountability, and social justice.