Nandita Das’s ‘Zwigato’ starring Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami releases today

Bhubaneswar: ‘Zwigato’ directed by Nandita Das will release across the country today. The film captures the lives of invisible ‘ordinary’ people that are hidden in plain sight.

The movie stars Kapil Sharma as the protagonist along with Shahana Goswami. A few artists from Odisha would also be seen on the screen.

Shot in Bhubaneswar, the film is about an ex-factory floor manager and his family. After losing his job, Manas the protagonist is forced to work as a food delivery rider, grappling with the app on his phone and the world of ratings and incentives. He struggles to make ends meet for his wife, two children, and an ailing mother.

Sharing about the movie, Nandita said, “Zwigato was born out of a conversation with a friend about the rise in unemployment. It was meant to be a short film. But Sameer Nair of Applause Entertainment nudged me to expand it to a full-length feature film. I first thought it would be challenging to humanise the world of algorithms, ratings, and incentives, without making it expositional. But as I delved deeper into it, the story became not just about the gig economy but also about the growing disparity in class, caste, religion, and gender, which has all become so normalised.”

“The film is a homage to Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. It was made in the 1930s, at the height of industrialization, and captured the deep-seated anxiety about the tussle between man and machines. Today we face a similar struggle between man and algorithms. The gig economy has become one of the largest employment sectors but also has posed new challenges for its workers,” she shared.

Zwigato had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), its Asian premiere at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), and its Indian premiere at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).