Mar 12 2026 to Mar 12 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

87 min | 2025, India, Germany | Bengali, English and Hindi with English Subtitles

In December 2023, TMC MP Mahua Moitra was expelled from Indian Parliament on allegations of cash for query: financial inducements to raise questions against businessman Gautam Adani. She denied it. There was no evidence. The House voted her out regardless.

What followed was a battle for Krishnanagar.

The Battle Royale is part of Election Diaries 2024, a series of nine documentaries by CeMIS (Centre for Modern Indian Studies) reflecting on the anxieties, hopes, and resilience of Indian democracy. The film tracks Moitra’s re-election campaign in one of 2024’s most contested constituencies, pitted against the BJP’s Amrita Roy, the ‘Rajmata’ of Krishnanagar, and CPI(M)/INC candidate S.M. Sadi.

Three candidates. One seat. Everything at stake.

Filmmaker

Lalit Vachani
Director
Lalit Vachani is a documentary filmmaker, editor, lecturer and research scholar at CeMIS (Centre for Modern Indian Studies) at the University of Göttingen. His documentaries include In Search of Gandhi (2007) and The Salt Stories (2009) which follow the trail of Gandhi’s salt march in Narendra’s Modi’s Gujarat; The Play Goes On (2005) on the leftist street theatre group, Jana Natya Manch; An Ordinary Election (2015), an in-depth study of an Indian election campaign by a new political party – the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party); The Boy in the Branch (1993) and The Men in the Tree (2002) which document the ideology and the growth of the RSS and Hindu nationalism, and Prisoner No. 626710 is Present (2024), about the Citizenship Amendment Act, student protests and the incarceration of Umar Khalid.