How this director turned AI anxiety into an absurd, award-winning comedy

Set in an Indian town, three retired men, Bagchi, Pimple and Ganguli, decide to wage war against technology. Their strategy is to steal jobs from electronic appliances by transforming themselves into gadgets: a dish antenna, a microwave oven and a security camera. The plot thickens when one of their children joins an AI firm. Will the trio emerge victorious and “reclaim their relevance”, or surrender to the pressures of convenience and “advancement”?

We Were Here, a short film written and directed by filmmaker Pranav Bhasin, navigates this conundrum, exploring the duality of man and machine in an edgy, futuristic comedy. The film premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival earlier this year and became the first Indian short to win at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film & TV Festival in the US, historically known for high-profile premieres such as Monkey Man, The Fall Guy and Hellboy, among others, taking home both the Best Narrative Short Audience Award and the Redbreast Unhidden Award. Following its win, Irish actor Andrew Scott joined the project as executive producer.