GANDHI’S THREADS is a feature documentary that follows Sudheer Rajbhar, a Dalit artist raised in the slums of Mumbai who is using fashion to subvert caste discrimination. Through his luxury goods brand Chamar Studio, Rajbhar and his team of leatherworkers transform discarded rubber and canvas into high-end bags and shoes for the upscale Indian and European market, reclaiming dignity for India’s marginalized ‘chamar’ caste, leatherworkers long stigmatized and economically sidelined since a 2015 India-wide ban on cattle slaughter.

Today Rajbhar has an even bolder plan: to build a Sustainable Materials School on the site of Mumbai’s demolished Government Leatherworking School. His dream is to transform caste bound leatherwork into a movement for ethical fashion and true sustainability, and he is willing to risk everything to do it. In the present political climate, his mission is as dangerous as it is ambitious.

At the film’s heart is Rajbhar’s surprising muse: M.K. (Mahatma) Gandhi. GANDHI’S THREADS traces the unlikely connection between the two men—one a modern designer-activist searching for ways to make fashion socially and environmentally sustainable; the other a spiritual leader who refashioned himself from British loyalist in a three-piece suit to advocate for the poor and symbol of simplicity dressed in hand-spun loincloth and hand-made sandals. Interweaving Rajbhar’s journey with Gandhi’s evolution, the film reimagines fashion as a vehicle for social change and encourages us to reflect on Gandhi's legacy in a new way. We may think we know Gandhi, the iconic apostle of nonviolence, architect of civil disobedience, and father of Indian independence. Now meet Gandhi, the fashion icon for a new generation.