A high-spirited group of Indian sex workers and their families begin making short films to transform their own lives and inspire others. They form a film unit in a Kolkata brothel, striving to make the brothel a better place to live.

Meet Meena, Afsara, Bilkis, Rabin and many other remarkable individuals from Kolkata’s impoverished Kalighat red-light district. They are part of CAM-ON, a creative community that learns filmmaking through online tutorials. Regularly uploading dynamic visual stories about their lives to YouTube, their work navigates their personal struggles and the challenges of their past. Despite the derision of a deeply conservative society, they remain determined to become filmmakers and actors, attempting to break the cycle of prostitution for the next generation, and survive through the art of cinema. Their ultimate dream is to transform the red-light district into a professional film hub in a post-pandemic world. Redlight to Limelight captures the remarkable power of this collective endeavour.

Bipuljit Basu is an IDA Award–nominated filmmaker whose work bridges social urgency with cinematic craft. His debut feature documentary cinema, REDLIGHT TO LIMELIGHT, premiered at Sheffield DocFest and went on to be selected for IDFA Best of Fest, DMZ International Documentary Film festival, and Riga International Film Festival, Verzio International Human Rights Film  Festival, marking a successful international festival journey. The film is supported by BBC Storyville and is a co-production between India, Finland, and Latvia.

Basu is a recipient of major international support for Redlight to Limelight, including Sundance Institute, Hot Docs, and the IDFA Bertha Fund, and was awarded the Best Rough Cut Excellence Pitch Award at DMZ Docs. Redlight to Limelight has been nominated for the Best Cinematography and the Best Writing categories in the IDA Documentary Awards, Los Angeles.  His work focuses on intimate human stories rooted in global south issues, yet resonating with universal themes of dignity, resilience, and transformation.

He is currently developing his next documentary cinema, WHO KISSED ME IN THE DARK, an India- Netherland co-production exploring love, imagination, and mortality through a magic-realist lens.

Bipuljit is based between India and Europe and continues to build cross-border collaborations in contemporary documentary storytelling.

If I hadn’t encountered the marginalized brothel community, I might never have become a filmmaker. They shaped me, awakened my emotions, and helped me grow. My first feature, Redlight to Limelight, was born through them. Trusting their collective intelligence made this film possible.

In 2016, an accident changed my life. A blow to my skull left me with partial hearing loss, nerve damage, and mobility issues. I lost my confidence.

By 2020, I conceived to make the film about the sex workers. That’s when I met CAM ON, a film collective run by sex workers in Kalighat, Calcutta. They create films for joy yet receive no recognition. Immersed in their world, I saw how social participation and equity shape filmmaking.

Over four and half years, I lived with them, witnessing their agony, ecstasy, and creative drive. As I understood their vulnerabilities, they sensed mine, opening their deepest truths to me.

Redlight to Limelight has grown through the journey of knowing each other— At times, they found courage, and at times, I drew strength from their steps along the path.

In this film, the entire sex worker community became the line producer. They’re working with me on my next film too behind the camera.

In this way, we remain bound— By commitment, by creation, by trust.