Oct 09 2025 to Oct 09 2025 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

67 minutes | Kannada, English and Hindi with English subtitles | Germany, India | 2025

On January 22, 2024, much of India came to a halt as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand temple to Lord Ram, built on the contested site of a demolished mosque. The spectacle, meticulously staged, gave the ruling party a decisive advantage ahead of the 2024 Indian elections, further splintering an already divided opposition.

Sangama is a powerful portrait of democracy at work in Southern India. The film follows the campaign of Wake-up Karnataka (WK), a citizen-led coalition mobilizing national networks to challenge the decade-long dominance of the BJP.

Journeying with Team WK, by train, car, and on foot, the film captures their efforts to steer clear of polarizing rhetoric and instead spotlight urgent, everyday issues: unemployment, farmer distress, and the rising cost of essentials. “Our tradition has taught us to love and not hate,” one senior member affirms, encapsulating their ethos.

From intimate community meetings and voter registration drives to the energy of massive political rallies, an intricate mosaic of the Indian election unfolds. Voices from the ground echo the people’s concerns: “Modi may have done a lot for the rich, but daily wagers haven’t benefited at all.”

As the summer intensifies, so do the campaigns—and with them, caste-based clashes stirred by political forces. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister amplifies anti-Muslim rhetoric, unsettled that strident Hindu nationalism is losing its appeal. Protests demanding accountability from pliant election officials expose the unevenness of the playing field. Through it all, Team WK persists, moving village to village, booth to booth, ensuring that people cast their votes.

Commissioned by the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Göttingen, Germany, the film is part of Election Diaries 2024, a series of nine campaigns across India that celebrate the resilience of democracy. At a time when authoritarian regimes are on the rise and narrow visions of nationhood threaten to erase cultural plurality, Sangama reminds us that an alternative vision of collective resistance and unity endures.

The screening will be followed by an interactive discussion with Tara Rao, Noor Sridhar and Mallige Sirimane from Eddelu Karnataka, and filmmaker Sunanda Bhat. The session, moderated by Pooja Prasanna, will conclude with a Q&A with the audience.

Speakers

Sunanda Bhat
Filmmaker
Sunanda Bhat is a documentary filmmaker and founder of Songline Films. Her work is marked by a patient, unhurried approach, allowing stories to gradually unfold—revealing both the resilience of people and the subtle transformations of their environments.

Her films have been screened at numerous international and Indian festivals, earning several accolades, including Monde en Regards at the Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Paris, the Planet in Focus Film Festival, Toronto, the Golden Conch for Best Documentary at the Mumbai International Film Festival, and the John Abraham National Award for Best Documentary. Her acclaimed film Ningal Aranaye Kando? (Have You Seen the Arana?) was showcased at the Musée de l’Homme, Paris, and featured in the India Film Week at Metropolis Kino, an art-house cinema in Hamburg, Germany.

Sunanda has also been an artist-in-residence at the Pepper House Residency, part of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, and is an active member of Vikalp Bengaluru, a collective that curates and screens some of the most compelling non-fiction cinema in the city.

Noor Sridhar
President, Karnataka Janashakti
Noor Sridhar, a former member of the People’s War Group and the Communist Party of India (Maoist), was one of the first members in Karnataka to abandon the armed struggle of the Naxalites and join the democratic activism of Karnataka’s civil society in 2014. As president of Karnataka Janashakti which describes itself as a “people’s organisation working for the workers, farmers, women and oppressed castes and classes,” Sridhar is an active member of the vibrant civil society movement in Karnataka. Currently, he is involved in the activities of Eddelu Karnataka which is civil society initiative to fight against anti-democratic and anti-Constitutional forces. He is also a part of Samyukta Horaata Karnataka which is a common platform for people’s movements by farmers, workers, Dalits, Adivasis, students, women

Sridhar is originally from Chitradurga and says that his concern for pro-people’s movements was inspired by his family’s heritage as his grandfather was a Sufi. As an active member of the PWG and, later the CPI (Maoist), Sridhar was involved in Naxalite activity in Karnataka in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he was considered next in line for the leadership of the Karnataka unit of the CPI (Maoist) after the death of Saketh Rajan. Even though Sridhar exited the Naxalite movement many years ago, he continues to reiterate that the grievances that compelled marginalised people to pick up arms, are still relevant.

Tara Rao
Senior Activist and Strategist, Eddelu Karnataka
Tara Rao is a member of the Central Working Group with a people’s political campaign – Eddelu Karnataka – consisting of over a 100 diverse set of grassroots organisations that is building an active citizens’ movement ground up. She first knew she wanted to get active on social justice working as an architect in Nepal in the early-90’s on a community-led school design project. For just under four decades, working across disciplines, she has also been employing her design skills, shaping action in the areas of rural development, environment and human rights, working with non-governmental organisations (incl. Amnesty, Greenpeace, WWF) and various bilateral and multi-lateral organisations in Asia, Africa and beyond.

Tara has spent many years facilitating collaboration with multi-disciplinary teams in national and global initiatives for social and environmental justice. Her work has taken her to live in Vietnam, Bhutan, Nepal, Denmark, and the UK. Just before she joined Eddelu Karnataka, Tara was part of setting up, testing and supporting Gigatonne Challenge – a team-based global climate action company. She believes that our massive socio-political and environmental challenges will ultimately require an active citizenry to actually turn things around.

Mallige Sirimane
Social Activist, Eddelu Karnataka
Mallige was born in Koppa in Chikkamagalur. Her interest in social activism began in High School. In the last 25 years she has been closely involved in land and water rights struggles and has worked with students, youth and women in rural and urban areas. She played an active role in initiating movements against the increasing number of acid attacks on women and against violence of children and women. She has worked extensively among the marginalized and exploited people and unorganized workers in the slums and villages of Mandya. She is also active in ‘Janandolana’, a coalition demanding equal education for all, which works against commercialization of education in the state and towards strengthening of the government education system. She is an active member of Eddelu Karnataka involved in the protection of democracy and the Constitution.

Pooja Prasanna
Senior Journalist, The News Minute
Pooja Prasanna is the Editorial Head of Reporting at The News Minute. A multimedia journalist with over 14 years of experience, she has reported on major events in south India. She reports on politics and policies with special focus on communalism, corruption and human rights. She is also an adjunct faculty at Manipal Academy of Higher Education. She has worked with Republic TV as Bureau Chief for south India and as a Principal Correspondent with Times Now.