Aahana Swrup
The Netflix Hindi film ‘Reporting Live’ dives into the far-reaching issue of illegal sand mining in rural India and the fearmongering environment created around it. The story follows reporters Sandhya Yadav and Vinod Sharma as they undertake the herculean task of unraveling the conspiracy around such illicit and illegal operations. Visargaon, a village that recently saw the collapse of a bridge as a result of the mining’s environmental impact, becomes the epicenter of the duo’s investigation.
However, once their work begins and they uncover the identities of the culprits sitting at the top of the sand mafia’s food chain, Sandhya and Vinod’s news channel, Azaad Bharti, gets cold feet about its willingness to shine a prominent light on the story. Thus, both the village that becomes victim to the crime syndicate’s exploitation and the media channel that opts to be a passive bystander end up playing crucial roles in the story’s depiction of the sinister sand mafia.
Azaad Bharti and Visargaon Are Both Fictional Elements With Some Foundation in Reality
Despite charting a dramatized story with fictional characters and narrative, ‘Reporting Live’ possesses a tangible basis in the reality of illegal sand mining in India. As a result, while the details of the conspiracy and its public unraveling are confined to the on-screen storylines, the premise itself is a reflection of reality. This means that instrumental storytelling elements like Azaad Bharti and the village of Visargaon, though fabrications in the film, retain a sense of realism. In real life, there are no direct counterparts for the on-screen news channel or the village. Yet, the problems faced by both remain rooted in reality. In the film, Azaad Bharti is introduced as a news channel that was founded on the ideals of truth and justice.
However, over time, as the channel gained success, it ended up trading its journalistic priorities for corporate profits. For the same reason, instead of supporting Sandhya and Vinod when their work makes them targets of the sand mafia, the channel’s head, Shyam, ends up encouraging them to drop the story. Through his storyline, the film highlights the negative impacts of the corporatization of media. According to a 2023 report in the Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research, while corporatization brings some benefits to the newsroom, mostly through increased funding, it can also lead to the end of editorial independence, prioritization of content, censorship, and more. Thus, despite its fictionality, Azaad Bharti finds a grounded identity that highlights the pitfalls of the corporatization of journalism. The otherwise fictional village of Visargaon maintains a connection to reality in similar ways.
Operations of illegal sand mining have continued to ravage Indian communities for years now. According to reports, the country’s construction sector obtains only around 400 million tonnes of sand through legal supply. However, the actual demand is 700 million tonnes of sand, leaving a vast shortfall that is usually met through illegal channels. This means hundreds of millions of tonnes of sand are extracted through illegal mining operations. One of the areas that has fallen victim to such practices is the Papagani catchment area in Karnataka. This has directly resulted in environmental degradation for communities in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Thus, the negative impacts of the mining that are depicted in the film through Visargaon remain real, even if the village itself is fictitious.
Read More: Are Sandhya Yadav and Vinod Sharma Based on Real Journalists?
