New Delhi: Filmmakers Abhishek Chaubey and Navdeep Singh will present director Shivam Shankar’s short film Bhed, Bakri, Bhoot on Anurag Kashyap’s YouTube channel, Oh Short Flips, on 24 September.
The 30-minute film is set in a public restroom, where a brass band player writes an angry message about his ex on the wall. One by one, other strangers add their own complaints, fears and grudges to the tiles, until it becomes a wall of confessions.
“The idea was to show bhed chaal (herd mentality); this film is a sarcastic take on that,” Shankar told ThePrint.
The Mumbai-based filmmaker revealed that he shot the film in just 24 hours on a moderate budget, though it took nine months of pre-production.
“We rehearsed the scenes in my flat, again and again, till we achieved perfection,” added Shankar, who has studied film direction at the AAFT and previously wrote the Netflix series Saare Jahan Se Accha: The Silent Guardians (2025).
With this film, he explores how everyone shouting their opinion can drown out any real sense of shared responsibility. Due to the consistent scribbling, the graffiti in the restroom multiplies until no one notices the restroom itself is falling apart.
“When I started writing, I asked myself, do I understand the complete story of the country? The answer was no. So this film is my attempt to look at India without filters, the everyday politics we live through, told through a raw, unguarded gaze… but again, we aren’t pointing fingers or blaming the government,” he said.
Bhed, Bakri, Bhoot, starring Vandana Joshi, Prasanna Bisht and Apeksha Iyer, has travelled widely on the festival circuit, screening at Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Roma Short Film Festival, Best of India Short Film Festival, IFFSA Toronto, Yellowstone International Film Festival, Tirana International Film Festival and Tokyo International Short Film Festival.
It has picked up several awards along the way, including second-best film at IDSFFK, best editing at Tokyo International Short Film Festival, best short film at IFFSA Toronto, and best Indian short film at Yellowstone International Film Festival.
Bhed, Bakri, Bhoot marks the third title on Oh Short Flips, following Incognito (2026), presented by Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, and Bobby Beauty Parlour (2026), presented by Imtiaz Ali and Kashyap. Shankar says a platform such as Oh Short Flips has given filmmakers like him the space to dare and dream.