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Sci560 Film Festival
Bengaluru Through Film and Conversation
Speakers
Explore Bengaluru’s scientific, cultural, and urban heritage through the lens of cinema at the Sci560 Film Festival, organised in collaboration with Science Gallery Bengaluru!
This two-day event features a lineup of thought-provoking films, including Down the Drain by Nitya Misra and In Search of Gold by Basav Biradar, each followed by insightful discussions with the filmmakers and experts. The festival highlights stories of the city, its environmental challenges, and its historical legacy, offering a unique perspective on Bengaluru’s multifaceted identity.
End each day with engaging activities, including a Bengaluru-themed quiz and a virtual scavenger hunt to test your curiosity and knowledge. This festival is part of Sci560: Science in the City, an ongoing exhibition exploring the city’s history through a military-industrial-academic lens. Don’t miss this cinematic journey celebrating the spirit of Bengaluru!
Festival Schedule: Download the full schedule here.
Day 1 | 1 Feb | Saturday | 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
11:00 am – 11:05 am: Opening remarks
11:05 am – 11:27 am: Down the Drain
Docu-fiction | English and Kannada | India | Nitya Misra
This is a documentary-fiction film about Bangalore’s sewage, told from the perspective of a woman who accidentally flushes a watch down the toilet. In tracing the journey that the watch takes from the toilet, the woman gets glimpses into the pipes and people that make up the sewage system in the city, and observes the system as well as its parts through conversations with different people.
11:27 am – 12:00 pm: Discussion with Nitya Misra and Veena Srinivasan
12:00 pm – 12:05 pm: Introduction by Usha Rao and Gautam Sonti
12:05 pm – 1:32 pm: Our Metropolis
Documentary | English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi | India | Gautam Sonti and Usha Rao
Bangalore is being refashioned as a ‘world-class’ metropolis. Livelihoods and homes make way for flyovers, glitzy malls and a shiny Metro. Threatened with a violent transformation of their city, residents confront the authorities. Beneath the State’s ideal of a ‘global city’ lurks the intent to clear a pasture for big business.
1:32 pm – 2:15 pm: Break
2:15 pm – 2:18 pm: A Stroke of Genius
Documentary Short | English | Vishnu Tenkalya
In a city that is constantly being gentrified because of its shape-shifting landscape, it is rare to find art that captures Bengaluru in its prime. Through the playful medium of watercolour illustrations, each painting by Paul Fernandes takes us through a mesmerising journey of what it meant to be living in Bangalore in the 70s and 80s.
2:18 pm – 2:23 pm: HeadbangerLore
Documentary Short | English | Devadri Bhattacharya and Shrivathsa Srikanth
Bangalore’s heavy metal scene emerged in the late ’80s, growing through the ’90s with bands like Kryptos and Millennium. Larger venues, bigger audiences, and international acts followed. The pandemic disrupted live music, but as venues reopen, a new chapter begins. This film explores the city’s metal legacy through artist interviews and performance footage.
2:23 pm – 2:28 pm: Madiwalas of Bangalore
Documentary Short | English and Kannada | Rehaan Diaz
Madiwala, meaning washerman in Kannada, was home to Bangalore’s dhobi community. While dhobi ghats still exist across the city, modernization is slow, and many struggle to sustain themselves as hotels and hospitals adopt in-house laundries. This film, focused on the Ashok Nagar dhobi ghat, explores their challenges—long hours, health risks, and environmental impact—through an interview with a washerman.
2:28 pm – 2:33 pm: Letter by Letter
Documentary Short | English | Pooja Saxena
Award-winning typeface and graphic designer, Pooja Saxena, has been chronicling street lettering from different cities and towns of India for over a decade. In Letter by Letter, she shines a spotlight on public lettering and typography in Bengaluru’s M.G. Road, and paints a rich picture of this often ignored facet of our urban spaces.
2:33 pm – 2:38 pm: Reviving Legends
Documentary Short | Kannada | Sharan G C
Reviving Legends is a short film that focuses on the life and work of expert craftspeople who maintain and restore the iconic vintage motorcycle, providing viewers an insight into the world of two Jawa Motorcycle mechanics in Bengaluru. The documentary pays homage to the unsung heroes who work tirelessly to preserve these priceless artefacts and the enduring history of Jawa motorcycles.
2:38 pm – 2:42 pm: Tale of Two Wheels
Documentary Short | English and Kannada | Jayavartheni Krishnakumar, Namrata Narendra and Suraj Devaraj
Despite Bengaluru’s cyclist-unfriendly infrastructure, cycling thrives—for livelihood, commute, and leisure. Citizens and organizations promote it through car-free Sundays and cyclathons. This film explores how cycling shapes identity, community, and aspirations in the city.
2:42 pm – 3:16 pm: A Family in Bangalore
Documentary | English | India | Paul Zills
A Family in Bangalore captures the bustling environment at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), where workers like Krishnan are central to the creation of the Hindustan Trainer 2 aircraft. Watch as precision lathes and giant presses methodically shape each part of India’s first domestically designed aircraft. The grainy, black-and-white footage reveals the factory’s busy assembly hangar and the HT2’s preparation for its test flight. This film highlights the factory’s crucial role in India’s aerospace journey.
3:16 pm – 5:26 pm: Pushpaka Vimana
Feature | NA | India | Singeetam Srinivasa Rao
The film, which has no dialogue, stars Kamal Haasan leading an ensemble cast that includes Samir Khakhar, Tinu Anand, K. S. Ramesh, Amala, Farida Jalal, Pratap Potan, Lokanath, P. L. Narayana and Ramya. It revolves around an unemployed graduate who encounters a drunk rich man unconscious and takes over his lifestyle after keeping him prisoner.
5:30 pm – 6 pm: Bengaluru Snap Hunt
Participants are invited to join a virtual scavenger hunt where iconic Bengaluru landmarks, items, or experiences are called out.
Day 2 | 2 Feb | Sunday | 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
11:00 am – 11:36 am: Tracing the Arc
Documentary | English | India | Pankaj Bhutalia
The Great Arc was a phenomenal achievement of applied science in British India between 1802 and 1843. It was an attempt to measure the curvature of the earth’s surface under the guise of cartographic and military necessity. The film attempts to recreate the stupendous effort and look at some of its implications.
11:36 am – 11:45 am: Anatomy + Humanities: The Animated Life of SL Bhatia
Documentary Short | Kannada | India | Meera K
A short documentary on physiologist SL Bhatia who insisted that medicine needs humanities. The film reimagines Bhatia’s life through archival photographs, museum objects and experimental animation via microscope.
11:45 am – 11:50 pm: Introduction by Gautam Sonti and Carol Upadhya
11:50 am – 12:18 pm: Fun @ Sun
Documentary | English | India | Gautam Sonti and Carol Upadhya
Around the turn of the century, India’s software outsourcing industry became a global hub, with engineers as key ‘knowledge workers.’ The Coding Culture film series (2004-05) captures Bangalore’s tech scene, work culture, and people. Fun @ Sun explores life in a U.S. multinational, while July Boys highlights early venture-funded startups.
12:18 pm – 12:23 pm: Introduction by Gautam Sonti and Carol Upadhya
12:23 pm – 12:49 pm: July Boys
Documentary | English | India | Gautam Sonti and Carol Upadhya
Around the turn of the century, India’s software outsourcing industry became a global hub, with engineers as key ‘knowledge workers.’ The Coding Culture film series (2004-05) captures Bangalore’s tech scene, work culture, and people. Fun @ Sun explores life in a U.S. multinational, while July Boys highlights early venture-funded startups.
12:49 pm – 1:15 pm: Discussion with Gautam Sonti and Carol Upadhya
1:15 pm – 2:00 pm: Break
2:00 pm – 2:34 pm: In Search of Gold
Documentary | Tamil and English | India | Basav Biradar
Set in the once thriving colonial gold mining township of Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), In Search Of Gold attempts to weave together the different lived and remembered histories of people who built this highly profitable enterprise. Against the background of the grim imagery of the now defunct mining operations, the film brings together narratives of collective socio-political struggles of the past, nostalgia for lost privileges and communities, and the anxiety of an uncertain future, of a fragmented society.
2:34 pm – 3:00 pm: Discussion with Basav Biradar, Nirmal Raj and Palahalli Vishwanath
3:00 pm – 3:05 pm: Babasaheb in Bangalore
Experimental short | English and Kannada | India | Mahishaa
Bengaluru reflects Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s enduring legacy through statues that symbolize assertion for marginalized communities. Unlike government-funded monuments, these are built by the people, embodying his philosophy of Educate, Agitate, and Organise. More than idols, they stand for resistance, empowerment, and the ongoing pursuit of equality.
3:05 pm – 3:07 pm: Kaathu Mela Kuppai Keezha
Experimental short | Kannada | India | Group4
Experimental Short film about the garbage disposal problems in Bangalore and how the different people of the city are affected by it, view it.
3:07 pm – 3:24 pm: Presence
Documentary short | English, Hindi and Kannada | India | Ekta Mittal and Yashaswini Raghunandan
Stories of Ghosts as narrated by workers employed to construct the city of Bangalore.
3:24 pm – 4:00 pm: Distance
Documentary | English, Hindi and Kannada | India | Ekta Mittal and Yashaswini Raghunandan
Stories of love as narrated by workers who the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation employs to transform the city of Bangalore.
4:00 pm – 4:40 pm: Above the Din of Sewing Machines
Documentary | Kannada | India | Surabhi Sharma
Bangalore, that much-hyped ‘Silicon Valley’ of India, is also home to a large garment industry that, until 2001, earned more foreign exchange from exporting cloth than the more glamorous trade in Information Technology! This film documents the exploitative work conditions of women workers in the garment industry in Bangalore. This Industry is largely geared towards exporting to big Brands in the West. And yet, the workers toil with extremely low wages and in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
4:40 pm – 5:00 pm: Break
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Bengaluru Quiz: How Well Do You Know the City?
Interactive Installations | 1 & 2 Feb | Sat & Sun | 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Stick-er-alli Bengaluru: Mark your Bengaluru! Add stickers to a giant city map to highlight your most frequented areas and spots.
Hale Bengaluru, Fresh Memories: Share your oldest Bengaluru memory on a post-it and stick it to our wall of nostalgia!
City Soundscapes: Capture Bengaluru in 10 seconds! Record and upload your city’s sounds to create an audio collage. Listen to how our city sounds!
Time Capsule: Bengaluru 2025: Leave a little piece of 2025 behind! Add notes, photos, or objects to our time capsule for future Bengalureans.
In collaboration with:
Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB) is a not-for-profit public institution for research-based engagement targeted at young adults working at the intersection of the human, natural, and social sciences, and engineering, art, and design. SGB’s public engagement model moves beyond participation, and towards proactive involvement through ever-changing research festivals anchored by interdisciplinary exhibitions, programmes, and public events consisting of research-based engagements led by artists and scholars from diverse backgrounds. SGB is established with the founding support of the Government of Karnataka and three academic partners—Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for Biological Sciences, and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
Speakers
Nitya Misra
Nitya Misra is an independent filmmaker based in Bangalore. Her films explore the drama of everyday life. Using different narrative techniques, she weaves video, writing, music, and digital media together to appreciate the extraordinary aspects of the seemingly mundane and inconsequential moments of the world around her.
Veena Srinivasan
Dr. Veena Srinivasan founded WELL Labs with a mission to bring the best available data and science to create transformational impact at scale. WELL Labs curates solutions and builds the ecosystem of actors to improve human well-being and conserve the environment.
Dr. Veena Srinivasan has won several awards for her work, including the 2015 Jim Dooge Award for best paper in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Science from the European Geophysical Union and the 2012 Water Resources Research Editor’s Choice Award from the American Geophysical Union. In 2022, she was listed as one of the top-cited scientists in the world.
Veena chairs the Strategic Advisory Group for the Integrated Monitoring Initiative for UN SDG6. She was the Prins Claus Chair at Utrecht University, Netherlands from 2018 to 2020. She joined the board of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in January 2024.
Gautam Sonti
Gautam Sonti dived into filmmaking soon after graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. One of his interests has been the intersection of technology with our lives. This has led to three films that enter the world of engineers and examine the impact of technology on society. Many of his films follow the lives of people over time, sometimes years. They have been screened at documentary film festivals around the world, but also at festivals that celebrate the ethnographic method.
Carol Upadhya
Carol Upadhya, a social anthropologist, has researched and published widely on a range of social transformations related to development, economic change, urbanization, capital and labour, and migration in contemporary India. She is Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, where she leads the Urban & Mobility Studies Programme. Professor Upadhya’s latest publication is a co-edited volume (with Vinay Gidwani and Michael Goldman), Chronicles of a Global City: Speculative Lives and Unsettled Futures in Bengaluru (University of Minnesota Press, 2024). She is the author of Reengineering India: Work, Capital, and Class in an Offshore Economy (Oxford University Press, 2016) and co-editor of Provincial Globalization in India: Transregional Mobilities and Development Politics (Routledge, 2018), and Co-editor of the Journal of South Asian Development (SAGE).
Basav Biradar
Basav Biradar is a writer, filmmaker and film educator. He teaches film at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Basav’s writing has appeared in leading Indian magazines and newspapers. He is also the founder of Historywallahs – a history collective working on the history of Deccan.
Nirmal Raj
Nirmal Raj uses math to find out how the universe was born, grew up, and got to have galaxies, stars, and physicists. A large fraction of his time is spent trying to fathom the nature of dark matter, an invisible and mysterious substance that makes up five-sixths of the mass of the cosmos. He teaches at the Centre for High Energy Physics at the Indian Institute of Science and writes layperson articles at The Hindu and The Print. You’ll often find him poring over cryptic crosswords, hiking up a hill, or penning alliterative poetry.
Palahalli Vishwanath
Palahalli (P.R.) Vishwanath had his education at the Universities of Mysore and Michigan. He was a Professor of Physics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR), Mumbai and a Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics( IIA), Bengaluru. He has participated in several experiments in Cosmic Rays, High Energy Physics and High Energy Astrophysics in India and the USA. He has also been a science communicator for the last two decades; he has written articles in both English and Kannada. He has also authored more than ten popular level books in Kannada on various aspects of Physics and Astronomy. He has participated in many TV discussions on astronomical matters and often interacts with students from schools and colleges.
