Anand Patwardhan has been making socio-political documentaries for over five decades pursuing diverse and controversial issues that are at the crux of social and political life in India. Many of his films were at one time or another banned by state television channels in India and became the subject of litigation by Anand who successfully challenged the censorship rulings in court.

Anand received a B.A. in English Literature from Bombay University in 1970, won scholarships to get another B.A. in Sociology from Brandeis University in 1972 and a Master’s degree in Communications from McGill University in 1982.

Anand has been an activist ever since he was a student — having participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement; being a volunteer in Caesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers Union; working in a rural development and education project in central India; in the Bihar anti-corruption movement in 1974-75 and in the civil liberties and democratic rights movement during and after the 1975-77 Emergency. Since then he has been active in movements for housing rights of the urban poor, for communal harmony and participated in movements against unjust, unsustainable development, militarism and nuclear nationalism. He describes himself as “a non-serious human being forced by circumstances to make serious films”.