Draft:1947: Brexit India

1947: Brexit India is a 2022 American-Indian documentary film by Sanjivan Lal which sheds a light on British presence in India from 1609 till 1947. The documentary aims to focus on the factors behind India getting independence apart from the national movement led by the national leaders.

The documentary is anchored and narrated by Boman Irani and have speakers such as Shashi Tharoor - Indian former international diplomat, politician, writer and public intellectual; William Dalrymple - Scottish historian, art historian and curator, as well as a broadcaster, critic and photographer; M. Rajivlochan - Historian and Member of Department of History, Panjab University, Chandigarh; Commodore Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar - retired military officer who served in the Indian Navy; Ishtiaq Ahmed - Swedish political scientist and author of Pakistani descent; Allister Hinds - author of Britain's Sterling Colonial Policy and Decolonization, 1939-1958; Professor Tom Tomlinson - Emeritus Professor, Department of History, School of History; Dr. David Omissi - Senior Lecturer in Modern History, University of Hull; Gurharpal Singh - political scientist.

The documentary was officially selected at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in the Non-Feature Film category of Indian Panorama 2023.

Plot
It looks at the international factors and the economics that dictated a hurried granting of independence to India in 1947.

Production
The documentary is being produced by Swarnjit Singh, a U.S.-based doctor in association with Sanjivan Lal's own production company - Eclectic FilIt has been scripted by Shama Zaidi, the writer of M.S. Sathyu's Garam Hawa and Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khilari to name a few.

The film was extensively shot in London, Wales, Hull, Delhi, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Murshidabad, Plassey, Buxar and Mumbai before wrapping up the principal photography on the 25th of March 2022. The film has been shot by Jogendra Panda while the sound is being seen by Manas Choudhury.

For the research purposes, the team had support from The National Library of India, Kolkata and Asiatic Library, Mumbai. Apart from these institutions, numerous books and research papers were also referred by Shama Zaidi. Regarding the archive footage the main source were British Pathe, AP Archive and Films Division, Mumbai. The photographs were sourced by various institutions and individuals across the world with a big help coming from Philip Thornton.

The film was officially selected at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in the Non-Feature Film category of Indian Panorama 2023. It was among the 20 non-feature films selected out of a broad spectrum of 239 contemporary Indian non-feature films.