Private Project

DEJA VU

At a time when corporate power has made everyday life a veritable struggle for working people, comes the documentary “Déjà vu”. Framed against the backdrop of Indian farmers’ protests - the largest such mobilization in recent times – the movie chronicles voices that are rarely heard: small family farmers in the United States -- oft-ignored and conveniently marginalized.
Over the last four decades, these American farmers have lived through sweeping market reforms and steady corporatization of agriculture. But how did the reforms turn out? Who benefited? Who lost out? The farmers, the consumers, or the corporates?
In exploring these questions, Deja Vu offers a unique perspective. An untold American story becomes a cautionary tale for another country, and indeed for the world. And along the way, the documentary traces how corporate oligarchies came to amass such unbridled economic and political power – with devastating consequences for the society.
Déjà Vu takes the viewer on this “back to the future” ride, where past meets future – a glimpse of what the future might portend.

  • Bedabrata Pain
    Director
    Chittagong
  • Bedabrata Pain
    Producer
    Chittagong, Amu
  • Rajashik Tarafder
    Producer
  • Sristy Agrawal
    Producer
  • Bedabrata Pain
    Writer
    Chittagong
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 3 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 24, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    200,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    India, United States
  • Language:
    English, Hindi, Panjabi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Bedabrata Pain

A leading member of the team that invented CMOS image sensor technology that ushered in digital camera revolution - Bedabrata Pain was an award-winning senior research scientist at NASA and Caltech. He holds over 90 patents and is an inductee to the US Space Technology Hall of Fame. With his debut film Chittagong (2012), he won the Golden Lotus in the Indian National Awards as well as many international awards. Earlier, he was the executive producer of internationally acclaimed Amu (2005) and the documentary called Lifting the Veil (1997). He is currently working on several feature films and web-series in India and in Hollywood.

Dr. Pain is a technology consultant for the prime movie-camera maker RED Digital Cinema. He received his B. Tech. degree from IIT Kharagpur in 1986, and his Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University in 1992, and taught in UCLA from 1998-2008, and has received prestigious awards such as the Lew-Allen Award, NASA Inventors Award, and IIT Distinguished Alumnus Award.

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Director Statement

The question of economic justice is truly a pressing issue of our times. On one hand, there has been a rising tide of economic insecurity and vulnerability for the working people. And on the other hand, there exists a gaping inequality, an unbridled growth of corporate power, and a gargantuan accumulation of wealth at top. Together, they pose an existential threat to the world and its people. Déjà Vu chronicles this existential threat through the eyes of American farmers. At its core, it is an anti-corporate anti-monopoly movie.

The idea for the movie came about in the aftermath of market reforms in farming in India and the ensuing farmers’ protest – arguably the largest peaceful protest movement in recent times. That’s when we realized that America is a silent but assured living history of such initiatives in action. Rarely does one find an occasion, such a “back-to-the-future” moment, that too from half-way across the globe!

So come January 2021. In the middle of Covid and a frigid American winter, an unlikely team of four Indians went on a 10,000 km journey through the farmlands of the American mid-west. Unlikely, because while I am an ex-NASA scientist turned film-maker, Rajashik and Sristy were graduate students pursuing phD in physics, and Rumela was a part-time theater actor.

Fast forward to 2025. From Europe to Latin America, there’s a disquiet amongst farmers, while farmers in India have escalated their fightback. And, our 10,000 km journey took shape in the form of the documentary. Hopefully, somewhere in the intersection of past, present, and future, “Déjà vu” is a reminder of that age-old dictum – that those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.