Australian filmmaker David Bradbury was detained shortly after midnight on September 11 at Chennai airport while travelling with his children, Nakeita, 21, and Omar, 14. After arriving at 1 AM, immigration officials allowed Nakeita and Omar to pass through but stopped David, a two-time Oscar nominee. He was taken to a room in the airport, where he was allegedly held for 24 hours before being forced to return to Thailand.

David had to part with his children, who were set to travel across India, including a trip to Varanasi to give a ‘Hindu farewell’ to his deceased partner, Treena Lenthall, Omar’s mother. He never received an explanation for his detention but suspects it may relate to his 2012 documentary covering protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu.

“We had spent two weeks in Bangkok before coming to India. There was a delay in processing dad’s visa, but it had come through in the end, and we were excited to travel to India. It is my first time here, and we thought dad would be with us to show us around,” Nakeita told The News Minute in an e-mail interview on September 18, the day she and Omar arrived in Thiruvananthapuram.

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On September 26, after completing their planned itinerary, Nakeita and Omar left India, remaining in touch with David, who is set to meet them in Milan. “We had stood just a few meters across from him when we were allowed into India, and he was not,” Nakeita recalled.

Omar added, “The officials at the airport asked us to convince my father to go back to Thailand.” Ultimately, David had to purchase a costly ticket, or else, he was told by Thai Airways, he would be deported back to Australia.

In the email interview to TNM, David described the conditions of his detention: “After they pulled me aside at Chennai airport with my kids within eyesight of me, just 10 meters away, they took me to a side room… which had a single bed, mattress, no sheets, or blanket. Rubbish on the floor and a metal grill on the door… I was obliged to relieve my bladder into a paper cup I found on the floor.”

David requested to contact the Australian embassy in Delhi multiple times, but he said those requests were ignored. He also refused to unlock his phone for interrogators.

During his detention, he was questioned about his involvement in the anti-nuclear protests. “If India was truly a democracy, it should value the rights of the media to have access to marginalised people and tell their side of the story,” he said.

David remains opposed to the Kudankulam nuclear project. “I think the Tamil Nadu and Delhi national governments, when they made this decision to build six nuclear reactors on a major earthquake fault line, acted not only irresponsibly towards their own people but also to the world… If one of those reactors has a meltdown like Fukushima or Chernobyl… the consequences… will be catastrophic,” he said.