Inside Vivek Chaudhary’s 'I, Poppy' and how it gives you a different perspective

Set in rural Rajasthan, I, Poppy follows Vardibai Meghwal and her son Mangilal, in a system where opium is both culture and currency. 

In the film, Vardibai represents survival, while Mangilal represents resistance. What unfolds is less a clash, more a slow unravelling of what it costs to take a stand.

A still from I, Poppy

This world was never unfamiliar for Chaudhary. “I used to see this sort of consumption of opium… it is a big part of this place, culturally.” Growing up around it, the crop never carried the sensational weight it does in urban imagination. 

But curiosity has a way of turning ordinary things into questions. “If I can just tell the farmer story well — that thought is the source of where this film came from,” he adds.

That decision to tell the story of a farmer anchors the film. Instead of chasing the larger, more cinematic narrative of narcotics and control, Chaudhary stays with the people who live within it. “I thought: What does it mean to live under structures like that and what does that feel like?” he says. 

Getting access into the world of poppy farming wasn’t easy. Farmers were guarded, often unwilling to speak on camera. It took a chance encounter with Mangilal to change the course of the film. What followed was a relationship that Chaudhary says he still maintains.

“We shot with them over four opium seasons over four years,” Chaudhary says, “We were showing them everything that we were making… They could say no to any part that they didn’t like.” That time period is reflected in the film. 

Chaudhary’s awareness of his approach to caste and representation is also evident. As a Savarna filmmaker telling a Dalit family’s story, the tightrope is real. But instead of over-explaining identity, he lets it surface when it must. “We didn’t want to superimpose any of our ideas, and we didn’t want to reduce them to identity only,” he says. The result is a film in which caste is present, but not performative. It exists the way it does in life, for example, you will see ample photos of Babasaheb Ambedkar in Mangilal’s home, and you will often see him wearing blue.

What is perhaps most telling is how audiences have responded. Chaudhary tells us, in France, viewers walked out saying “vive la révolution” [Long live the revolution]. In Busan, conversations leaned towards empathy for the mother. In India, the responses reflect the audience’s understanding of caste and context. “The depth of how people are relating to it… has been truly, truly great,” he says.

Maybe that’s the real success of I, Poppy. It’s that the viewers walk out unsettled, and unsure about who they agree with, aware that both sides make sense. In a film about systems, that might just be the most honest place to land.

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