Anant Singh’s Gandhi doc receives international award

A documentary film about Mahatma Gandhi, by renowned South African producer Anant Singh, has won the award for best documentary feature film at the New York Indian Film Festival. The film called ‘Ahimsa – Gandhi: The Power of the Powerless’ – was directed by Ramesh Sharma. Sharma also directed the 2006 documentary ‘The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl’, which was nominated for an Emmy.

Singh says he is delighted about the acclaim for the Gandhi documentary. “This is a very important award because it’s a selection are based on all the documentaries that were part of the film festival and we are very proud that AHIMSA was chosen for that accolade it’s a testimony to creativity and the story telling of this amazing legacy.”

Singh says Gandhi’s legacy attracted him to be part of the project. “The spirit of non-violence in Gandhi’s involvement in South Africa and his inspiration to world leaders is what is pivotal in me making the decision to be involved, Gandhi’s legacy began in South Africa and the apartheid regime and racism was what placed him in the position that made him liberate India the importance of Gandhi philosophy is one that has been embraced by leaders like Albert Einstein and many other philosophers,” he says.

“The film narrates the impact of the Gandhian message of Non Violence worldwide; how it inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement in USA, the Solidarity Movement in Poland, The Velvet Revolution of Havel, and the Anti-Apartheid strife in South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s fight against injustice, oppression, racism and his struggle to restore basic human rights and dignity for the coloured citizens of his country. In short, the film decodes the power of Non-Violence and why it remains relevant to this day,” according to the film’s synopsis. 

The film includes interviews with world-renowned scholars, biographers and close family members of Mahatma Gandhi as well as Nobel Laureates including the Dalai Lama and former Polish president Lech Walesa. The documentary includes rare archival footage, photographs, inspirational songs and more.

Watch the trailer