Our Podcast - The Talk in The Town gathers perspectives of small city actors on the relationship between citizens and policies, how this relationship can be made stronger, and how citizens can inform policy making.
On episode 7 of Season 3 of our podcast "Talk in the Town", we spoke to Hemant Chaturvedi, former Bollywood cinematographer turned documentary photographer, on a mission to document & preserve Indian cities’ vanishing cultural heritage: the single-screen cinema theatres.
Since 2019, Chaturvedi has traveled over 50,000 km across 22 states, visiting over 950 towns to photograph over 1,150 of these architectural & cultural icons before they are lost forever to multiplexes & urban development.
Part 1 of this Podcast talks about Mr. Chaturvedi’s personal journey of breaking into & away from Bollywood to eventually produce one of the most essential stories of India’s urban transformation.Click here to listen to the rest of the conversation in Part 2 which talks about the socio-economic and cultural underpinnings of what it means for such urban heritage to fade into oblivion.00:15 Introduction of the Podcast
01:14 Introduction of the Speakers
02:55 Breaking into Bollywood & Beyond
22:22 Landing up at Laxmi Talkies
37:40 In a small town, all you need to know are 3 people
42:09 End of an Era: The Decline & Survival of Single-Screen Cinemas
For more such insightful conversations about unique initiatives anchored by small city actors, subscribe to our monthly podcasts on Spotify & Apple Podcasts!
Our conversations
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Our platform, Nagrikal, endeavours to be a pioneer in bringing public policy to citizens and city governments, especially those in small cities. Limited knowledge has been emerging from smaller cities - whether in policy priorities of the national and sub-national governments; discussions at international forums; research by academia; or common knowledge of the citizens. Nagrikal is a platform for Behind-the-scenes actors to share their experiences and lessons so that they be channeled into policies.
Through the Nagrikal:
We seek to provide information about governance in a collaborative and commentary style instead of ‘knowledge’ being disbursed.
We maintain our focus on small towns, which are often left out of the policy discourses.
We bring to light a variety of perspectives from different actors interacting with policy, from policy makers to administrative officials, politicians and various stakeholders.