What's your caste?

This documentary is about the place where I grew up and the people who live there, with the backdrop of the caste system.
Ep1 is a travelogue (non narrative) it takes you through the village from my perspective through my sketchbook. It’s a love letter to the village I grew up in.
Ep2- A teacher tells stories of caste based discrimination and leaves us with some difficult questions to ponder upon.

  • Jignesh Chavda
    Director
  • Upamanyu Bhattacharya
    Producer
    Wade
  • Swati Shelar
    Producer
  • Kushal Kishore
    Animation
  • Vineet
    Animation
  • Mouparna
    Animation
  • Jignesh Chavda
    Animation
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    tame keva?
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 11 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 12, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    Gujarati
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - National Institute of Design
Distribution Information
  • Otter Studios
    Distributor
Director Biography - Jignesh Chavda

I am Jignesh Chavda, a recent graduate of Animation Film Design from NID Ahmedabad. I come from a small village in Gujarat called Sindhaj. I have particular interest in watching and making Documentaries. My sketchbooks are filled with sketches of people I met and every new place I have visited. I wish to turn those sketchbook pages into short documentaries.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

This documentary is my graduation project, it’s about the place where I grew up and the people who live there, with the backdrop of the caste system.
Ep1 is a travelog (non narrative) it takes you through the village from my perspective through my sketchbook. It’s a love letter to the village I grew up in.
Ep2- A teacher tells stories of caste based discrimination and leaves us with some difficult questions to ponder upon.
Caste system being such a huge issue in India, we still don’t have enough films or documentaries about it, this was enough motivation for me to work on it.
My motive behind this project was to tell stories of my heritage, to find what’s my history, to understand the struggles of my ancestors who survived through extreme caste discrimination, it all started with a late night family talk where my parents were telling how they were treated differently in school. So many stories erupted out of the conversation, I started talking to more people about their experiences, and I wanted to make an animated short film based on the real stories, one thing that was common in all the stories was the question that everyone gets asked “tame keva? It means what is your caste? And I felt the documentary format will do justice to what I have to convey. So I went ahead and interviewed 12 people from different backgrounds, chose the one that I felt was the most powerful, the one that asked important questions.
With this documentary I don't want to make any statement or put out any harsh opinions, all I want is for the viewers to think about this topic and ask the difficult questions. If it gets people talking about the Caste issue, I would then consider my project to be a success.