Azmaish: A Journey Through the Subcontinent

Sabiha Sumar first thought of making a documentary on the changing sociocultural scenarios in Pakistan and India in 2013 as she wanted to "explore both countries and catch what is going on [sic]".[1][2] She was particularly intrigued by the religious extremism in the sub continent and its impact on the public mindset. Sumar felt that a documentary was the best medium for tackling the subject as it "needed real people talking about real life experiences"; according to her, a fictionalised account of things would not have been as powerful as the real life accounts.[3] The idea did not materialise until 2015, when it was selected for the European Broadcasting Union's Eurovision Documentary Group Meeting. With the backing of the commissioning editors and professionals from the Union, Sumar was able to find investors for the project: the French-German networks Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen and Arte, and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.[2][4]

Koechlin (pictured, 2016) agreed to the project after meeting Sumar at the 2015 Mumbai Film Festival.

Sumar met Kalki Koechlin at the 2015 Mumbai Film Festival, where she was serving as the member of jury. She was looking for someone to collaborate with and felt that Koechlin "shared a similar level of curiosity". Sumar felt that it would be interesting to have for someone from India visit and explore Pakistan. Koechlin, for her part, was initially sceptic about the project as she felt that a journalist or research scholar would better suffice the demands of the documentary.[1] She agreed to the film nonetheless as she was intrigued by documentary's subject matter. Pre-production work began in January 2016, when Koechlin visited Pakistan. Photographs of her visiting Pakistani politician Sharmila Farooqi in Karachi drew media attention and led to speculations regarding the purpose of her visit.[5] It was only when a large part of the film's Pakistan segment was filmed that Sumar formally announced the project through an interview with the Mumbai Mirror; she also discussed the problems of funding the production and asked people to support the project's crowdfunding campaign.[6]

Filming for Azmaish took place in varied locations in India and Pakistan including Mumbai, Delhi, Karachi, Lahore, and parts of Haryana and Sindh, with Claire Pijman, Peter Brugman, Asad Faruqi, and Mo Azmi working as the directors of photography.[7][8] While Sumar narrowed down the cities that she wanted to visit in Pakistan, Koechlin chose the Indian locales; they were assisted by a research team.[4] Koechlin travelled to Pakistan for the first filming schedule in January 2016; the production team shot in the "deserts and mountains" in Sindh, Karachi and Islamabad during the period.[5] Koechlin recalled the day that the crew shot at a truck depot in Mauripur in an interview with Rajeev Masand: "people talked very openly [and there] was no animosity. We had chai with the Pathan drivers there. I had a great time."[1] The crew organised a fashion show at the depot, with models wearing dresses designed by Sanam Agha and Adnan Pardesi. Koechlin and Sumar talked to the models, the designers, and the truck drivers to get an insight into the "contradictions of modern Pakistan that coexist".[9]

Other parts of the film were shot in India in a separate schedule. The crew visited Mumbai, Maharashtra where they filmed sections of the film in the local trains and celebrated the Hindu festival of Holi with the locals in the city. The remaining parts of the documentary were shot in the North Indian states of Delhi and Haryana.[7] Sumar said that she never worked with a definitive story and had to improvise at numerous occasions when the team could not get permissions to shoot at planned locations.[10] Azmaish was stalled for a brief period after the filming was completed. Having self-funded the project, with assistance from the European television networks, Sumar exhausted the film's initial budget of approximately US$200,000 during the filming process. Sumar said that she was pleased with the film's rough cut and felt that the "material [was] very rich". She also expressed her desire to have the film broadcast on European television networks and have a wide release in both India and Pakistan.[10]

Azmaish had to rely on separate crowdfunding campaigns to meet the production costs.[2][10] After an unsuccessful attempt at financing the project through a campaign on the American crowdfunding website Indiegogo, which raised a sum of US$8,393 of the required US$70,000, Sumar opened another similar operation on the Mumbai-based platform Wishberry and was able to raise ₹2 million (US$25,000) for post-production.[7] Around 60% of the total money raised was contributed by people from India and Pakistan; the producers used social media and email marketing to encourage people to contribute to the campaign.[7] Sumar told a Wishberry executive that she chose crowdfunding as the film "deals with something that is affecting every life in these two countries [...] when we ran out of funds and channels to get these funds from, it only made sense that we reach out to the people who this film is about". Azmaish was edited by Martin Hoffmann and the sound mixing was done by Faiz Zaidi and Bhabani Mallik; the film's final cut ran for a total of 85 minutes. The film's music and background score was composed by Aamir Zaki.[8]

Azmaish was well received by critics at its various premieres. Commentators were appreciative of Sumar and Koechlin for coming up with "astonishingly powerful results" while addressing the sensitive and controversial subjects of secularism and freedom.[15]