About

Simit Bhagat is a documentary filmmaker, writer and development practitioner based out of
Mumbai.

Simit is also the Founder of The Bidesia Project – an initiative to archive and promote folk
music traditions from Bhojpuri region of India. He is presently also working on a feature
length documentary film on folk music from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India.

Simit’s earlier films have focused on social development issues including agriculture, water
security, livelihoods, gender and women empowerment. He has been a speaker at a panel
discussion organized by the Commonwealth Foundation on the story of
indentured migration and separation at the Bangalore Literature Festival 2018.

His first short documentary film ‘My Disappearing Farms’ focused on the story of rice
farmers from Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra, India migrating to large cities in search of
work and their struggle to keep their farming culture alive. The film was nominated and
screened at various film festivals across India including the prestigious 9th CMS Vatavaran
Environment and Wildlife International Film Festival and Forum 2017 in New Delhi.

Simit has worked over a decade in different capacities, with some of the large development
and media organisations including Thomson Reuters Foundation, Tata Trusts and The
Times of India (TOI).

As a journalist with TOI, he has also covered the United Nations climate change summit
(COP – 15) in Copenhagen, Denmark and produced stories on climate change impact,
negotiations and politics.

Simit has a Master of Arts degree in Science, Society and Development from Institute of
Development Studies at University of Sussex, UK and a Diploma in Journalism and Mass
Communication from Mumbai. He was one of the 9 journalists from 12 countries to have
been selected for a fellowship on Environment Reporting from International Institute of
Journalism, Berlin, Germany in 2008.

For any assignments or collaborations, feel free to reach out to me on s.bhagat@ids.ac.uk