A couple of years ago, National Award-winning filmmakers Jasmine Kaur Roy and Avinash Roy visited Punjab to research for a documentary film. The context was the large-scale migration from the state and they wanted to explore the idea of ‘home’. During the visit, they met a young man who vehemently rejected the idea of leaving his village and his generational occupation of farming. “There was a sense of helplessness, yet he sounded hopeful,” recall the filmmakers. That prompted them to develop Room at the Farm (Khooh Waala Ghar), a short film that recently won the Grand Jury Prize at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA). Set in rural Punjab, Room at the Farm examines the impact of rampant industrialisation and unsustainable modernisation on Indian farming. The film focuses on newly-wed Nihal (Guru Bamrah), who must pay off mounting debts even as the farmlands around him make way for factories.…