Oscars 2025: Nominated Indian short saw one time street kid Sadja Pathan in LA

From surviving on the streets in India to Hollywood glamour… what cinema dreams are made of…

WHILE the shortlisted short live action film, ‘Anuja’ about two sisters in India battling the system of child labour and looking for a way out, did not triumph at Sunday’s Oscars – they were still big winners in other ways.

Ananya Shanbhag, Sajda Pathan and
Guneet Monga Kapoor in LA
(Instagram: Guneet Monga Kapoor)

Both actors – Sajda Pathan who played nine year old Anuja and Ananya Shanbhag who plays her older sister Palak in the film – could hardly have imagined being on the red carpet for the Oscars when they made the film.

The star is Pathan, an actual street kid in Delhi who wound up at the Salaam Baalak Trust, a charity set up by director Mira Nair’s family following the global success of her first film, ‘Salaam Bombay’ (1998) which featured a street kid joining a circus and the life that followed. The Delhi charity homes street children and lifts them from a life of scavenging and/or irregular and illicit labour.

Pathan was in LA with Shanbhag – who had never been in a film before appearing in ‘Anuja’. She is a bharatanatyam dancer who did a screen test and was suggested to writer-director American academic and now filmmaker, Adam J Graves. Pathan had been recruited for a French production previously just before ‘Anuja’.

Mindy Kaling producer of ‘Anuja’
on the red carpet ©AMPAS

The story revolves around Anuja (Pathan) being talent spotted academically while working illegally in a garment factory. The teacher (Mr Mishra – Gulshan Walia) who identifies her academic-mathematical ability, urges her to do an exam to gain entrance to a prestigious boarding school for girls. She half plays with the idea and consults her older sister who is encouraging. Her boss (Mr Varma – Nagesh Bhonsle) who sees this approach is wily and manipulative. We won’t spoil it for you – the film is available on Netflix.

Losing out to the Dutch, ‘I am not a Robot’ the film produced by Graves’ partner Suchitra Mattai, also had the illustrious backing of Indian super producer and one time Oscar winner already, Guneet Monga Kapoor (‘The Elephant Whisperers’ in 2022) and Hollywood stars Mindy Kaling and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. That is as starry as it gets.

Monga Kapoor posted about the pair’s trip on her Instagram account. The film originally premiered at the Hollyshorts film festival in August last year. (See links below).

What a journey for filmmakers Graves and Mattai who spoke to us about the making of this film shortly after it reached the final shortlist.

Elsewhere, it was great to see indie writer-director Sean Baker win for four individual awards for his indie masterpiece, ‘Anora’.

It’s a testament to independent filmmaking and also a huge thumbs up for Cannes where it premiered – he had screened a previous film there and it was in May at the festival that this film first made waves.

www.asianculturevulture.com didn’t see ‘Anora’ at Cannes, where it enjoyed its world premiere.

‘Anora’ Producer Samantha Quan, writer-director Sean Baker
and producer Alex Coco with their Oscars ©AMPAS

We did see ‘Anora’ at London Film Festival (LFF) in October and were blown away – so much energy, wit and chutzpah – we could see how it edged out our favourite in Cannes certainly, ‘All We Imagine as Light’. It’s a shame that writer director Payal Kapadia’s film did not make it through to the last round of the Oscars as she did at the Baftas.

Guided in Cannes, by the critics over which film to see on the last day there – when the Competition films all screen in different venues, we picked ‘Emilia Perez’ – in the end it won a jury ensemble acting prize with the now much criticised (for negative posts about Black Lives Matter) Karla Sofía Gascón, playing the central character of the trans Emilia Perez and Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez, all being cited in Cannes.

Saldana followed up her Bafta for Best Supporting role with an Oscar too and apologised for the way some Mexicans perceived the film. It is about drugs cartel boss in transition and is quite violent especially in its final section. ACV reviewed it and liked it but its musical genre still seems odd.

It was interesting to note how many Baftas were repeated at the Oscars – Mikey Madison, Saldana, Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin, Lol Crawley, Paul Tazewell – incidentally, the only other person of colour on the evening in addition to Saldana; Daniel Blumberg and Peter Straughan.

https://www.oscars.org/

Our take on the Baftas 2025