With No Camera Experience & Barely Any Budget, 28-YO’s Film on Goa’s Goldsmiths Wins Best Documentary

A documentary is a nonfiction film about real people, events, places, or practices. It uses observation, interviews, narration, and recorded scenes to explore something that exists in the world. A fictional film usually creates characters, situations, and a plot for storytelling, even when it draws on real ideas.

Bhaangar Kalakusar Karigiri follows goldsmiths Shirodkar had watched while growing up. It shows artisans working in small workshops, including one craftsman engraving a name into gold with a thin metal wire. The film also includes women artisans and uses Konkani, Goa’s local language and Shirodkar’s mother tongue.

The difference matters because the documentary preserves real craft knowledge instead of recreating it with actors. Shirodkar filmed, directed, and narrated the project herself. Her father wrote the script, drawing on his experience in the trade, while her partner edited the footage. The result connects personal memory with living cultural practice.

Bhaangar Kalakusar Karigiri was made by Prachi Shirodkar, a 28-year-old filmmaker from Goa. She developed the documentary as her final-year project after switching from architecture to mass communication during the 2020 lockdown. The subject was close to her because her father and grandfather had worked as goldsmiths.

Shirodkar handled the filming, direction, and narration. She had never operated a camera before beginning the project. Her father wrote the script in the specific Konkani vocabulary used for the film. Mario Pimenta, Shirodkar’s partner, edited the documentary and encouraged her to revive it after the original college group assignment fell apart.

The production had no fixed shooting schedule and barely any budget. Many subjects were relatives or family friends, so filming happened when they were available. Shirodkar later said the project would benefit from a fuller script and a dedicated cinematographer if she made it again.

Goa’s goldsmiths are shown practising detailed handcraft. They work around furnaces and benches, melting and shaping gold, then engraving designs or names with sharpened metal tools. The film captures the patience and precision behind this work, rather than treating gold jewellery as something that simply appears in shops.

One scene especially impressed Shirodkar. A craftsman carved an entire name into gold using a slim metal wire. She said the tool did not even look like a knife, yet the artisan’s hands were skilled enough to complete the lettering. Her father had also worked in the trade, as had her grandfather, so she knew the craft from childhood.

She chose the subject to focus on the artisans’ art and skill. She said she was not trying to represent the whole community. Including women artisans also showed that the work is no longer performed only by men. The film therefore documents both technique and change within the craft.

Shirodkar took on three major filmmaking roles herself: she filmed the documentary, directed it, and provided the narration. This was a demanding arrangement because she had never operated a camera before. She also had to shape a clear story from footage gathered at different times.

The project received crucial support from people close to her. Her father wrote the script, using the specific Konkani vocabulary connected with the craft. Mario Pimenta edited the film and persuaded her to restart it after the college group assignment failed. Many of the artisans filmed were relatives or family friends she had known for years.

The production remained small and informal. There was barely any budget, no fixed shoot schedule, and no continuous filming period. Shirodkar paid for it with whatever resources she had. Shoots took place in scattered bursts across several weeks, making the editing process especially important for creating a coherent narrative.

Bhaangar Kalakusar Karigiri began its festival journey with rejection. Its breakthrough came when it was selected for Jackson Doc Fest in Tennessee, USA. That first unexpected selection opened the way for more screenings and recognition beyond Goa.

The film was later screened at Kerala’s International Folklore Film Festival and selected for the International Cultural Journal Award in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. It also won Best Documentary at the Miseentage Indian Film Awards. These results showed that a small, low-budget production could reach festivals and audiences in different places.

Shirodkar was subsequently conferred a Young Achievers Award by Rotary International for her contribution to culture. She said she was genuinely taken aback when her name was called. The experience helped establish her as a young filmmaker focused on culture. She now works as an assistant director in Mumbai and has a clearer sense of how professional production differs from theory.

Shirodkar chose Konkani because she is Goan, the work takes place in Goa, and the language is her mother tongue. This choice keeps the film close to the people and place it documents. She also recognised that Konkani has local differences, including dialects associated with Mapsa, Pernem, and Margao.

Her father wrote the script in the specific vocabulary connected with the trade. That gave the film a language foundation drawn from his own experience as a goldsmith. Shirodkar also deliberately included women artisans. She said it is no longer only men who do this work, so a male-only film would leave out part of the craft’s current reality.

These decisions make the documentary more locally grounded and more complete. It presents the artisans’ own cultural setting instead of replacing it with a broad, outside viewpoint. It also records change within the trade, while keeping attention on skill rather than claiming to represent the entire community.

Intangible cultural heritage includes skills, language, knowledge, and working practices that people learn and pass on rather than store as physical objects. A documentary can preserve these elements by recording practitioners in their real settings. It gives future viewers access to voices, methods, and details that may otherwise remain known only within families or local communities.

Shirodkar’s film records Goa’s goldsmiths working with heat, gold, and hand tools. It captures the striking technique of engraving an entire name with a slim metal wire. Her father wrote the script using specific Konkani vocabulary, while the film acknowledges differences among the dialects of Mapsa, Pernem, and Margao. Women artisans are also included.

The project shows preservation as active documentation, not just description. It connects a craft to the people who practise it and the language surrounding it. Shirodkar’s family link adds another layer, since her father and grandfather had worked in the trade. The film can therefore help keep practical knowledge and local cultural context visible.