The NLS Law and Society Archives, in collaboration with the student-led NLS Feminist Alliance, organised a screening of Working Girls by documentary filmmaker Paromita Vohra on April 17,  2026. Created in collaboration with the Laws of Social Reproduction Project based at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, the film invites us to rethink what it means to work and who gets to be seen as a worker.

‘Working Girls’ travels across India to uncover the invisible, yet essential labour performed by women. Moving through Kolkata, Mumbai, Shillong, Latur, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Madurai, the film brings us into the lives of domestic workers, farmers, ASHA workers, dancers, mothers, sex workers, and organisers whose work sustains society but is rarely recognised. The film blends humour, music, and animation with a deep engagement with law, gender, and history.

The full house screening was followed by interaction with Paromita Vohra that reflected on the relationship between the filmmaker and her subjects, and the importance of preparation and scripting in documentary practice. Members of the audience also considered how distinct cultural contexts shape forms of labour, and the changing nature of social movements in the twenty first century.

The NLS Law and Society Archives is interested in contemporary forms of recording and documentation. It regards all recording as acts of interpretation, shaped by choices of form and perspective. By organising the screening, the Archives sought to explore how feminist popular media has told stories of marginalisation, and what these narrative practices contribute to an expanded understanding of the archive.

Paromita Vohra is a filmmaker and writer whose work spans documentaries, television, digital media, and art installations. Her films, including Unlimited Girls, Q2P, Where’s Sandra?, Morality TV and the Loving Jehad, and Partners in Crime, are known for their sharp feminist insight, wit, and formal experimentation. She has also written for cinema, including Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters), and created the comic Priya’s Mirror and the play Ishqiya Dharavi Ishtyle. In 2015, she founded Agents of Ishq, a pioneering digital platform that has transformed conversations on sex, love, and desire in India. Across her work, Vohra brings together humour, critique, and a deeply sensuous engagement with questions of gender, labour, and everyday life. She has edited Love, Sex And India: The Agents Of Ishq Anthology (Context, 2026), and her weekly column Paronormal Activity ran for 15 years in the Sunday Midday.

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