Shaunak Sen turns cancer diagnosis into new documentary

Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen says his next documentary grew out of his own cancer diagnosis, using filmmaking as a way to confront treatment and recovery while returning to themes of pollution and care in New Delhi.

Sen, 39, whose All That Breathes was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2023 Oscars, said the still-untitled project began as a coping strategy after he was told he had cancer. He said the diagnosis made environmental risks he had explored in earlier work feel personal.

The film's central figure is not Sen but his surgeon. Sen said he wanted to avoid making an inward-looking film and was drawn to the focus and care involved in surgery.

New Delhi, where Sen grew up and has set his work, remains central to the project. Sen described the city as the film's "wallpaper", this time acting on his own body.

Sen's 2022 documentary All That Breathes followed two brothers caring for birds affected by Delhi's polluted air. It won top documentary prizes at Sundance and Cannes and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2023 Oscars.

A 2024 study in The Lancet Planetary Health estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution. Sen has had surgery and continues to recover.