Meet The Team
Anandita Bajpai
Direction, Story, Archival Research, Production
Anandita Bajpai is a Research Fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin. As a historian of the Cold War, her research focuses on international broadcasting radio stations and their listening publics in India. She has published extensively on topics related to political communication, radio reception history and India-GDR relations. Check out her full profile here: https://www.zmo.de/en/people/dr-anandita-bajpai
Jyothidas KV
Cinematography & Co-Writing
Jyothidas K V is a visual artist and researcher based in New Delhi. He is a trained printmaker whose art practice varies from drawing-based installations, performances, text, and prints to photographs and gatherings.
His performances try to locate random acts of belonging in cities and investigate the relationships between food, identities, and geographical locations. He also researches the history of modernist printmaking in India as part of his academic work. His works usually exist in the form of visual conversations and collaborations.
Dan Gatzmaga
Editing, Cinematography & Sound Design
Dan Gatzmaga is a film editor based in Berlin, currently studying at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg. Their work ranges from fictional films and documentaries, such as "Sick Girls", which premiered at the 66th DOK Leipzig.
Check out their latest work and profile here:
Sound Mixing: Jonas Albani
Title Design: Saga Herngren
Music: Nitin Sinha (Composition and Voice) & Reyazul Haque (Lyrics)
Additional Videography: Peter Lambertz
Co-production: Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin
Featuring
(In order of appearance)
Arvind Srivastava
Protagonist/ Founder of "Lenin Club" (Radio Berlin International) in Madhepura, Bihar
A poet and author based in Madhepura and Patna (since 2023) Bihar, Arvind Srivastava has been an ardent radio listener in India (late 1970s-80s). He holds a PhD in History and taught for several years at a college in Madhepura and later became a full-time poet/ Literateur. He has published over six collected volumes of poems in Hindi. He has also extensively published his poems and essays in several literary magazines, newspapers, and has been an active member of the All India Progressive Writers' Association (Bihar Wing).
Friedemann Schlender
Protagonist/ Radio Berlin International (1965-90) and Deutsche Welle (1991-2004)
Friedemann Schlender studied Indology at the Humboldt University (Berlin) with a specialization in languages (Hindi, Bengali, Sankskrit, Persian and English). He founded the Hindi Division at RBI in 1967 and later headed the Asia Editorial Department. After 1990 and RBI's closure, he joined Deutsche Wellle (Berlin studio until 1993). From 1993, he was Editor and then Head of the Hindi Editorial Department in Cologne and from 1994 also of the Bengali and Urdu Departments. He retired as Head of the Asia programmess of Deutsche Welle radio in Bonn.
Sabine Imhof
Protagonist/ Radio Berlin International (1981-90)
Sabine Imhof studied Indology/South Asian Studies and Hindi as a language at East Berlin's Humboldt University. She first joined RBI as an intern and later became a permanent employee of RBI's Hindi Division until the station's closure in 1990. She was actively involved in establishing contact with listeners from India through letters (which earned her the title of 'Postkönigin' or the 'Queen of Posts'). She currently works at the German Studies Department of Humboldt University (Berlin).
Mahesh Jha
Protagonist/ Radio Berlin International (1984-90) and Deutsche Welle
(1992-Present)
Mahesh Jha studied history (MA, Chinese History) in India and joined RBI's Hindi Division in 1984. Among others, he did a special feature titled 'Berlin Diary', which showcased the transformations in the city after 1989. Upon RBI's closure in 1990, he continued as a freelancer for Deutsche Welle radio from Berlin. In 1992, he moved to Cologne as a full-time employee of Deutsche Welle's Hindi Radio service. Mahesh Jha currently heads Deutsche Welle's Hindi Service in Bonn.
also Featuring (Voices of)
Arif Naqvi (Radio Berlin International)
and
Ujjwal Bhattacharya (Radio Berlin International and Deutsche Welle)
also Featuring (in Madhepura)
Poonam Lata Sinha
Sachindra Mahto
Harishankar Srivastava 'Shalabh'
Shambhu Sharan 'Bhartiya'
Turbasu
Our Story
The Sound of Friendship is an attempt to trace the warmth of ties established across two continents in times of the Cold War. The shooting in Madhepura, Bihar was completed in 2019. The story we were tracing with the camera intrigued us because the actors on both sides of the spectrum– in India and Germany– had never met each other in person. Yet, RBI as the mediating radio station, became a means to establish long-lasting ties of cordiality, love and friendship among them, for long after its closure in 1990. Ironically, the multiple lock-downs due to the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, put the team in similar situations of geographical distance. While some of the shooting in Germany had to be put on hold or cancelled altogether, the team could only meet remotely to finish the production and editorial work. Here a glimpse into the people– both on and off screen.
Support
Leibniz-Zentrum Moderne Orient, Berlin (ZMO)
Modernes Indien in Deutschen Archiven (MIDA)
Deutsches Rundfunk Archiv, Potsdam (DRA)