For Lack of a Better World (2026)

In For Lack of a Better World, director Shivam Rastogi turns his lens on a quiet revolution unfolding in private spaces across India: people forming emotional bonds with artificial intelligence. Through audio logs, screen recordings, and observational fragments, the film documents users — from call-center workers to elderly widows to questioning teenagers — who turn to chatbots and voice assistants for companionship, rehearsal, confession, and self-discovery.

Without narration or expert commentary, the documentary assembles a mosaic of intimate exchanges that blur the line between tool and confidant, simulation and care. The result is a snapshot of a society in transition, where the boundaries of intimacy are being redrawn one conversation at a time.