Priyanka Chopra Jonas has joined the Indian short film We Were Here as an executive producer, giving the Oscar-qualified project a higher profile just as its Academy Awards campaign begins. The film, written and directed by Pranav Bhasin, has won more than 20 awards and screened at more than 80 international festivals.
Actor Andrew Scott and playwright-activist V, formerly Eve Ensler, have also boarded as executive producers. The team behind the short now includes some of the most recognisable names in global storytelling, alongside producers Yash Gonsai, Dheer Momaya and Dar Gai and presenters SPLF Media and Aarti Lohia.
A familiar anxiety, played as comedy
We Were Here follows three retired men in a small Indian town who are convinced that machines are taking over human jobs. Their form of protest: pretending to be household appliances. The premise turns more complicated when one of their children joins an artificial intelligence company.
Chopra Jonas described the project as timely. “This film offers a refreshing, witty take on a subject that feels very timely. I jumped at the opportunity to come on board as an Executive Producer to amplify this creative team and ensure their brilliant, original vision gets the spotlight it deserves,” she said in a statement.
Where the Oscar path stands
The film’s Palm Springs International ShortFest win made it eligible for Academy Award consideration. Among its honours are:
- Audience Award for Best Narrative Short and the Redbreast Unhidden Award at SXSW
- Best Live-Action Short Film Under 15 Minutes and Best Comedy Short at Palm Springs International ShortFest
- The Canal+ Prize at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, where it had its world premiere
The New Yorker has acquired the short and will premiere it on the publication’s official YouTube channels, adding a prestige distribution window for awards voters and general audiences.
Why this matters for Hindi cinema
For an Indian short, the combination of festival qualification, international awards and a star executive producer is a real campaign asset. Short-film Oscar races are often decided as much by visibility as by craft, and Chopra Jonas’s involvement brings exactly that. Bhasin said it was surreal to have the backing of established names such as Chopra Jonas, Scott and V as the film enters awards season.
The backing spans three corners of the entertainment world, with a Bollywood star, a British screen actor and an American playwright-activist each lending their name to the project. For Bollywood Chronicle readers, the film also lands in a conversation that refuses to age: technology, employment and the fear of becoming obsolete. A comedy about retired men pretending to be machines is an unusual way into that debate, and the global festival response suggests the note is striking.
As the campaign develops, the question is whether an Indian short can convert festival credibility into a place in the Academy’s shortlist conversation.
Source: The Times of India
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