Dia Mirza backed short film Panha, it seems has been recognised on the festival circuit like a bit of a surprise in a good way winning Best Indian Short Film at the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF) it also took Best Film at the 9th World Indian Film Festival in Hyderabad, plus another Best Film at the Dhruma Film Festival.

It even got an Honourable Jury Mention at the 13th Mumbai Shorts International Film Festival.

Told through the eyes of seven-year-old Vithu Panha is placed in a Maharashtrian village where his family suddenly might lose its ancestral mango farm to an infrastructure project.

He watches things unfold as his father keeps talking about starting over in the city but his uncle is kind of stuck on the land refusing to move away, like the place is tied to them all the way through generations.

As the eviction gets nearer Vithu goes missing just a few days before they are supposed to be pushed out. From there the whole family is pulled into an emotional search one that really checks their love patience and ability to understand what home means not just where it sits.

She said, “Perhaps it started with a mango tree in my backyard and the time I spent on its broad branches reading books during my summer vacations. The branches were so wide that I could lie down with a book, resting against the trunk. Whenever I got into trouble, that tree became my escape and my hiding place. Hours would pass, and I would be so comfortable in its embrace that I never felt the need to climb down. My relationship with nature from childhood shaped the way I looked at the world and gave me a sense of purpose.”

She shared, “I had stepped into a more materialistic phase of life, but a drive through the forest shifted something within me. It reminded me of everything I had known as a child. Spending time with local communities and forest rangers, walking through the forest, taking photographs and having conversations made me realise that it would be pointless to be a public figure if I couldn’t use my voice to help others remember what truly matters. That has been my pursuit ever since.”

She added, “We belong to one another. We belong to the land. We belong to nature. We are not separate from it. Everything we need in our lives comes from the Earth, and it is the Earth that cradles us.”