Director Jaob Varghese was observed mingling with delegates on November 25, 2022 in Goa at the "Table Talks" sessions hosted by PIB in conjunction with the 53rd International Film Festival of India.

Ayushmaan is an inspiring depiction of the journey of two 14-year-old HIV-positive underprivileged boys from rural India who develop a passion for marathon running in order to overcome the social stigma and discrimination that exist in society against HIV patients and, as a result, bring about positive change and hope for others.
 

The director stated that "the guys and their sheer desire to never give up in life has in turn motivated and inspired me as well, when asked about the inspiration behind filming the documentary. They stopped whining about the pain they were experiencing and instead accepted a challenge, which gained hearts."

At a facility for children with HIV, Jacob came across Babu and Manik, two boys who were 12 years old at the time. One of them struggled to get past his worries related to his family and the future, while the other had been abandoned at birth. I was concerned about how they would live their lives, how they would survive, and how long they would live when I first met them because they were born HIV + through no fault of their own. 

Varghese described the specifics of their journey while describing how they began on a small scale. He said "As we sailed with the current, I began to grow alongside them, and their mission carried them to five continents and twelve nations. I only followed them and wrote down what they did." The journey to document took almost 6 years to finish.

Varghese asserted that the psychological effects of the stigma have much more severe effects than the disease's physical ones and are much more demanding since the victims are still coming to terms with the fact that their relatives have abandoned them despite their own faults.
 

Varghese explained that the lack of accurate information about diseases like HIV and leprosy puts a barrier in front of these people's ability to experience life to the fullest and even deprives them of their due. He also mentioned how the stigma and discrimination associated with the disease is robbing them of even the small pleasures of life and how misinformation plays a crucial role in doing so.

Varghese described how the boys' transformation into role models for other children of a similar stature in their orphanage and expressed optimism that the boys would continue to run till their final breath as the greatest inspiration to many.
 

He argued that you cannot even recoup the money you spent making such movies, and there are no places other than film festivals where you can screen them, so I felt compelled to provide accurate information.

 

Ayushmaan was shown at the 53rd International Film Festival of India in Goa in the Indian Panorama Non-Feature category.