Jāt premieres on 1 December in Tours

• What: World premiere of Jāt / Caste
• When: Tuesday, 1 December 2026, 7 p.m.
• Where: Thélème Cultural Hall, University of Tours
• Languages: Marathi and Hindi, with English and French subtitles
• Entry: Free, advance booking required

After more than twenty years of fieldwork, filming, encounters and returns, the first film of India Bhimraya will meet an audience for the first time.

Jāt / Caste begins at Dikshabhumi, where Ambedkar’s 1956 conversion returns each year as unfinished political history. From that rupture, the film moves through Uttam Kamble’s childhood, school, ritual, Nashik and Kalaram, before returning to Ambhora, where caste is carried in water, land, names, songs and everyday relations. Neither abstract system nor inherited relic, caste appears as lived infrastructure — and as something continually contested in the name of dignity, equality and Ambedkar’s unfinished revolution.

We are especially glad that its first public screening will take place in Tours, where L’Atelier Bhimraya is now based and where the film is entering the final stage of its long journey towards the screen.

What to expect

The evening will begin with a short introduction by the directors, placing Jāt within the six-film India Bhimraya cycle and the long history of research, filming and relationships from which it emerged. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the audience about the film, its making, and the questions it raises around caste, Ambedkar, democracy, memory and documentary practice.

This is an avant-première in the fullest sense: the film is being shared at the threshold of its public life, before its wider circulation through festivals, universities, cultural spaces and community screenings. It is also the first occasion to encounter India Bhimraya not as a project or an archive, but as cinema.

How to join us

Admission is free, but advance booking is required through HelloAsso. Places at Thélème are limited, so we strongly recommend reserving. Your booking guarantees access to the screening; practical information will be sent to registered participants before the event.

For questions about the screening, accessibility requirements, or group attendance, please contact us at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

“When a person goes into the jungle, he takes caste with him. Send him to the moon—he will take caste with him.”

— Uttam Kamble, interview for India Bhimraya, Nashik, December 2025

This is only the beginning. If you would like to bring Jāt to a festival, university, cultural venue, association or community screening, we would be glad to hear from you. To host or programme the film, contact us at email hidden; JavaScript is required or email hidden; JavaScript is required.