Priyanka Chopra Jonas and V Back Oscar-Qualified Indian Short 'We Were Here'

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Tony-winning playwright V, formerly known as Eve Ensler, have signed on as executive producers of Pranav Bhasin's Oscar-qualified Indian short "We Were Here." They join Andrew Scott on the roster as the film enters awards season.

The New Yorker has acquired the short. The magazine will premiere it on its YouTube channels.

How did the film qualify for the Oscars?

"We Were Here" has screened at more than 80 festivals and collected over 20 awards. The film launched at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, where it took the Canal+ Prize. At SXSW, it won the audience award for best narrative short plus the Redbreast Unhidden Award.

Palm Springs International ShortFest named it best live-action short under 15 minutes and best comedy short. That Palm Springs win made the film eligible for Academy Award consideration — the qualifying threshold for the short categories.

Bhasin wrote and directed the mockumentary, set in a small Indian town. Three retirees, convinced that machines are stealing human jobs, protest by posing as household appliances. Their campaign derails when one of their children goes to work for an artificial intelligence company.

Satish Kashyap, Devendra Dodke and Arindol Bagchi star as Mr. Bagchi, Mr. Pimple and Mr. Ganguli. The cast also includes Shubham Kujur, Kalpana Gagdekar and Yash Gonsai. Gonsai produced through Sunshine Pictures alongside Dheer Momaya and Dar Gai. Aarti Lohia and SPLF Media present the film.

What did the new producers say?

"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," Chopra Jonas said.

Bhasin, who hails from Mumbai, directed films by age 13 and had made his first series, for TVF, by 17. His track record includes:

• "Wolf of Chawl Street," Silver Dimensions prize at the Mumbai film festival, 2017
• "New Year's Eve," named best short at Mumbai a year later
• "Taylor's Version" and "Screaming on the Fly"
• Premieres at SXSW, Mubi, Short of the Week and Vimeo Staff Picks
• Alumnus of Vanishing Angle's Short-to-Feature Lab (2020) and the Zurich Film Festival Academy (2022)

"'We Were Here' started as a small, silly idea about three uncles trying to stop the spread of AI, and somewhere along the way, I fell in love with them, their friendships, and their stubborn resilience," Bhasin said. "In India, reality is often stranger than anything you could write, and the mockumentary format let me keep the film rooted in real people and real places, while exploring just how absurd things can get."

He added: "Now that the film is Oscar-qualified, I'm still figuring out how to process it. I made it the way I make everything. I followed an idea that felt wild to me, all the way to the end. I was never sure it would make sense to anyone outside my head. As a young filmmaker, I find it pretty surreal to have a tribe of highly accomplished and committed EPs, including Andrew Scott, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and V. We're all really excited to find creative ways to get this film to wider audiences."

Who else is behind the film?

The executive producer roster also includes Peter S. Kim and Nalini Sharma of Basement Video; Neha Kaul, Megha Kadakia, Priya Giri Desai and Shruti Ganguly of Prism Entertainment; Shivani Pandya Malhotra; Film Companion Studios; Anjula Acharia; and Pan Nalin. Devaiah Bopanna, Earlyman Film, Rahul Bharti, Supavitra Babul and Vaibhav Bundhoo serve as co-producers.

Producer Gonsai carries his own Oscar pedigree. He executive produced Nalin's "Last Film Show," which made the international feature shortlist at the 95th Academy Awards. He more recently teamed with Dharma Productions on Neeraj Ghaywan's Cannes-debuting "Homebound," shortlisted at the 98th Academy Awards.

With Chopra Jonas, V and Scott amplifying a film that already holds more than 20 festival awards, "We Were Here" enters this year's animated-short and live-action-short race — or rather, the live-action-short race — as one of the most heavily supported Indian contenders in recent memory, with The New Yorker's YouTube premiere positioned to widen its audience before Academy voters cast their ballots.