A little girl sparkles in Oscar-nominated film – and shines a light on child labour

Sajda Pathan (L) and Ananya Shanbhag between takes during the filming of "Anuja" in Delhi, India.

“Anuja”, a film directed by Adam Graves, was nominated for a 2025 Oscar in the live action short film category. The film, starring a former street child from New Delhi, examines the complex problem of child labour in India in a story packed with warmth, laughter, suspense and a hard look at the resilience of minors forced to work to survive.

Two sisters in a New Delhi slum giggle as they read the matrimonial ads in the classifieds section of a crumpled newspaper picked up from the streets.

Palak, 17, holds a rusty old torch for her kid sister, Anuja, while the nine-year-old slowly reads the Hindi text.

“Gainfully employed man…” Anuja bites her lip as she struggles with a difficult word.

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“Seeks,” supplies her big sister.

“Seeks an equally suitable bride... ” the little one carries on with the informal reading exercise.

“The eligible girl should have fair skin,” little Anuja enunciates the imperative dramatically. She’s turning up the fun quotient of this unorthodox slum-study programme.

“Does my skin look fair?” asks Palak, turning the torch on her face in the dilapidated, candlelit hut, where a leak in the roof is used to collect water by night and irrigate a potted plant by day.

“Not fair enough,” Anuja pronounces as the sisters crack up.

The literacy-via-matrimonial-ads class continues.

“Girl should not be too ambitious in terms of work,” reads Anuja.

Now her wise older sister is genuinely confused. “Should not be ambitious? If the girl is not ambitious, then who will be?” asks Palak. “Do the boys ever get any work done?” she asks with a face-splitting grin.

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“Of course not,” comes the reply as the girls collapse laughing.


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