Over 5 million people in India have been infected with HIV since the country’s first case was discovered 20 years ago. The epidemic, which has tested the India’s health care and economy, was largely ignored in the nation’s mainstream media until the turn of the century.

“Even I turned away from the topic at first,” said Vanaja C, a visiting scholar at Berkeley who has recently produced a documentary on India’s AIDS crisis. “Society has been in a state of denial.”

As the epidemic has continued to grow, so has the media’s coverage of it. But stories typically hinge on the death aspect of the disease, Vanaja said. “I wanted to make a film about AIDS, but I didn’t want it to be about dying,” she said. “I wanted it to be about life.”

The following are still photos taken from Vanaja’s 2007 documentary, “+ve Living.”