Film | "Dhadak 2" Conversation with Director Shazia Iqbal and Writer Rahul Badwelkar

2025 | Shazia Iqbal | India | 132 Minutes | Hindi w/ English subtitles

Join writer/directors Shazia Iqbal and Rahul Badwelkar for a discussion on their recent film, Dhadak 2 (2025) with Rohit De and Sushant Singh.

Please consider joining us for a screening of the film the evening prior, Monday, September 16 at 5 PM in Luce Hall Room 101.

Dhadak 2 depicts the story of Neelesh, a first-year student at an elite law college targeted for his caste who fights off vicious bullies and lethal threats to protect his dignity and forbidden love. The themes of the film portray how caste identity dominates every aspect of life, particularly love and relationships, in contemporary urban Indian society. Dhadak 2 is the first mainstream Hindi film in decades where a Dalit protagonist and Dalit politics take center stage.

About the Speakers:

Shazia Iqbal is an Indian Writer/Director based in Mumbai. She won the best debut Director at the 30th Sao Paulo International Shorts Film Festival for her critically acclaimed short film, Bebaak. The film premiered at IFFLA and was screened at MOCA-Grand, Los Angeles under the programme ‘The new wave of South Asian Cinema’. Bebaak went on to win several International and Indian State and Critics’ award. Her first feature film, Dhadak 2, is lauded as a historic film for unapologetically talking about caste and dalit politics in mainstream Hindi cinema. Iqbal has written and directed a Docu-fiction episode, Homecoming for Amazon Prime video’s anthology series, Love Storiyaan, which talks about real-life couples surviving Indian society’s forbidden ideas of love. Her episode was critically acclaimed and most watched episode of the series. Her feature film script, Momo’s First Wedding was selected by the prestigious lab, Produire Au Sud for DIFF 2023. Another feature script, Blood Circle was selected for Film Independent’s Global Media Maker’s Screenwriting lab, 2019 in Los Angeles. She is one of the protagonists in CBC’s Canadian documentary, Women beyond Bollywood, which talks about Indian women reshaping the film industry and changing its stereotypes. Before venturing into filmmaking, she worked as a Production Designer for fifteen years. She has designed the International Emmy-nominated, original Netflix series, Sacred Games (I & II) and International Emmy-nominated mini-series Lust Stories.

Rahul Badwelkar is a Writer/ Director based in Mumbai, who started his film career with sound design. A commerce graduate, he studied Sound Recording & Design at Whistling Woods International Film School in Mumbai. His first feature film as a Screenwriter, Dhadak 2, is lauded as a historic film in mainstream Hindi cinema for unapologetically talking about caste and dalit politics. He has written and directed a Docu-fiction episode, Homecoming for Amazon Prime video’s anthology series, Love Storiyaan. Rahul has worked as an Associate Director in Netflix India’s first original series, Sacred Games (2018, 2019) and Manmarziyaan, which was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018. He worked as second unit director on Choked (2020) and as an Associate Director in Darlings (2022). His first film as a sound designer was LipsMck under my Burkha (2016) and he also worked on films like Lust Stories (2018), Ghost Stories (2020, at Warner Brothers Studio, London), Satyagraha (2014), Chennai Express (2015) and Juze (2017).

About the Discussants:

Rohit De is Associate Professor of History and Chair of the South Asian Studies Council at Yale University. He is a historian of South Asia and the British common law world. He is the co-author, with Ornit Shani, of the recently released Assembling India's Constitution: A New Democratic History (2025) and author of A People's Constitution: The Everyday Law in the Indian Republic (2018).

Sushant Singh is a Lecturer in South Asian Studies at Yale University. He is an award-winning journalist, author, and scholar specializing in South Asian security, diplomacy, and strategic affairs. He serves as Consulting Editor at The Caravan magazine in New Delhi and is a monthly columnist for The Telegraph (Kolkata) and The Morning Context. His analysis and reporting have appeared in leading international publications including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Walrus, and Kiev Independent.

Presented by the South Asian Studies Council