When you open the Instagram page of Civic Studios, the production house founded by Anushka Shah, you are not greeted with a plethora of marketing content about the studio's next project. Instead, you find informative posts about topics that are currently on the airwaves. Anushka explains, “If we only show up when we have a release, we've missed the everyday opportunity to shift the conversation.” She adds, “We don't see ourselves as just a production house. We are a media house that blends entertainment with social change in multiple formats. Informative posts are an extension of our mission: creating social awareness through the lens of cinema and storytelling.”
Anushka, who is also the CEO of Civic Studios, recently backed Bend It Like Beckham maker Gurinder Chadha’s latest directorial, Christmas Karma, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The musical follows British-Indian businessman Eshaan Sood (a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge) through a life-changing night in London, forcing him to confront his own prejudices. Speaking about the film, Anushka says, “The experiences of Indian immigrants in London are not just about facing discrimination; it also includes facing negative rhetoric from fellow immigrants.” She explains that the genesis of Christmas Karma happened when a British lawmaker, whose parents were Indian immigrants, proposed hardline policies on immigration. But why take a light route to discuss such a dense topic? “Song and dance cannot be removed from the lives of the Indian diaspora. While highlighting issues is the focus, the musical format was a good counterbalance.” Starring The Big Bang Theory-fame Kunal Nayyar as Eshaan Sood, Christmas Karma is currently streaming on Prime Video.
Apart from films, Anushka has also backed projects, including the short film It’s Only 47°C and the radio drama Haat Baat. Veteran actor-filmmaker Naseeruddin Shah is the co-producer of It’s Only 47°C, which features Sharib Hashmi as a traffic constable whose day, plagued by a heatwave, is chronicled. “When artists like Naseeruddin Shah and Sharib Hashmi bring their craft to a climate story, they lend it emotional gravity that data alone can't achieve. Their experience means they know how to make an audience feel something — and that's where behaviour change begins,” says Anushka. Regarding Haat Baat, a radio drama, Anushka says the format was chosen to reach audiences, especially students, through wider distribution. "Climate impact can't wait for a theatrical window,” says the producer.
While Anushka is a graduate of New York University and the London School of Economics, it was her time at the MIT Media Lab, where she dabbled in AI, that led to the formation of Civic Studios. The other projects from her banner include Little Thomas, starring Rasika Dugal and Gulshan Devaiah, and the microdrama Scam City, realised through AI. Anushka is also aware of criticisms of AI, especially regarding water consumption and its use in creative fields like cinema. “AI to support production processes rather than replace IP creation while protecting human creativity and truth matters. We're actively exploring how AI can make climate storytelling more efficient and accessible, while staying mindful of its environmental and ethical costs. The goal is to use it to amplify urgency, not replace the human truth at the heart of these stories,” concludes Anushka.