Sparsh Ahuja is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist and National Geographic Explorer based in Melbourne.
His work has exhibited in venues such as The Smithsonian, Victoria & Albert and Asian Art Museums, and featured at Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, MUBI, The New Yorker, TIME, The BBC and Al Jazeera amongst others.
We have virtually reconnected over 15 Partition survivors with their ancestral homes across the India–Pakistan border. This involved conducting in-depth oral history interviews, co-designing narratives with survivors, and transforming their stories into bespoke virtual reality journeys. Every step of the process was carefully designed to be trauma-sensitive, with workflows that acknowledged and respected the psychological complexity of engaging with memories of displacement, violence, and loss.
Project Dastaan has been internationally recognised for its innovative approach to immersive storytelling. Our work is now listed in the UK National Archives and the British History Curriculum, and has been featured in TIME, The BBC, The New Yorker, Reuters, Nikkei, NPR, and National Geographic. We’ve received endorsements from figures such as Malala Yousafzai and Gabo Arora, director of Immersive Storytelling and Emerging Technologies at Johns Hopkins University.
The project is inspired by my grandfather’s own migration from West Punjab to Delhi as a 7 year old.
See our work here
Featured in TIME, The New Yorker, National Geographic, Nikkei and Elle
Screened at The Smithsonian, Asian Art Museum, Harvard University, MIT Media Lab, V&A Museum, BFI and ForumDesImages amongst others.
Our academic collaborations have been equally central. In partnership with SOAS University and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, we conducted qualitative research—using interviews, surveys, and participatory workshops—to explore how VR and visual media can shape pedagogical practices around conflict history. We were also awarded the University of Warwick’s Enhancing Research Culture Fund to lead a project on visual identification and intergenerational memory, using VR and animation as tools to engage younger audiences with Partition history.
To support the growth of the project, I led the strategy and execution of a global crowdfunding campaign, building a community of supporters around our mission. I managed a team of over 30 volunteers, produced campaign videos, built a CRM of media partners, and oversaw donor communications and reward fulfillment. Through direct engagement with Kickstarter’s advocacy team, we secured a “preferred project” listing and raised $28,000 USD from more than 450 donors across 20 countries, surpassing our original target. Campaign rewards such as handmade calligraphy from Old Delhi and miniature paintings from Pakistan reflected our commitment to healing, memory, and cross-border connection. The campaign was endorsed by Suroosh Alvi (VICE) and amplified by a social share from Riz Ahmed.