‘If I had not made Appuram, I would not be alive today ’: Indu Lakshmi
Malayalam filmmaker Indu Lakshmi on her personal films and her run-ins with the Kerala State Film Development Corporation & its late chairman, cinematographer-filmmaker Shaji N Karun, who passed away in April.
How this African escaped war to study cinema in India and went to Cannes
Ethiopia’s Kokob Gebrehaweria Tesfay, a SRFTI Kolkata student made ‘A Doll Made Up of Clay’ featuring Nigerian Ibrahim Ahmed, who’d come to Kolkata to play seven-a-side football. The short film was selected at La Cinef competition of 78th Cannes Film Festival. Those behind the film talk about its making and the racism Africans face in India.
Sharmila Tagore: ‘Satyajit Ray felt women are more morally superior than men’
Sharmila Tagore on meeting Wes Anderson at the 78th Cannes Film Festival screening of her 1970 film Aranyer Din Ratri; essaying some of Satyajit Ray’s strong women characters on screen; working with two Bengali stars Soumitra Chatterjee & Uttam Kumar; & balancing Bengali cinema with Bollywood.
‘The great David Lynch wanted the spectator to be a detective’: Stéphane Ghez at Cannes 2025
EXCLUSIVE: To many, the cinema of the American auteur nonpareil remains an enigma. French documentary filmmaker Stéphane Ghez tries to decode that in 'David Lynch: Une énigme à Hollywood' ('Welcome to Lynchland'), a tribute to Lynch who passed away on January 16, 2025. The film premiered in Cannes Classics.
Varun Grover on Kiss: ‘Censorship is a good challenge, I find my ways around it with a new language’
In an exclusive interview, multi-hyphenate filmmaker and standup Varun Grover and lyricist-singer turned actor Swanand Kirkire talk about their short film 'Kiss', which released on Mubi this month, how creative control rests with directors more than writers, and the crisis in Bollywood.
Hot Docs winner Vivek Chaudhary’s ‘I, Poppy’ is a potent telling of farmers trapped in the opium paradox
After Nishtha Jain's 'Farming the Revolution' last year, Vivek Chaudhary's 'I, Poppy' is the second Indian non-fiction film on Indian farmers to win the top jury prize, Best International Feature Documentary, at the prestigious Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto this month.
Miguel Gomes on ‘Grand Tour’ & colonialism: ‘I want the Western viewer to be a little lost’
EXCLUSIVE: Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes’ 2024 Cannes Film Festival Best Director-winning era-spanning, continent-hopping historical drama ‘Grand Tour’ streams on MUBI. Gomes’ cinema has been an influence on Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia.
On Ambedkar | Somnath Waghmare: ‘Chaityabhumi, Bhima Koregaon are my childhood memory & culture, I’m not an outsider’
Dalit History Month: On 134th Ambedkar Jayanti, April 14, MUBI released two documentaries, by Somnath Waghmare & Jyoti Nisha. Somnath Waghmare talks about his film ‘Chaityabhumi’ (2024), Maharashtra’s history of some dominant-caste people having been anti-caste & Bollywood’s saviour complex.
On Ambedkar | Jyoti Nisha: ‘Root of Brahminical & Dalit patriarchy is same but Dalit men are slightly kinder, ours is a shared struggle’
Dalit History Month: On 134th Ambedkar Jayanti, April 14, MUBI released two documentaries, by Jyoti Nisha & Somnath Waghmare. Bahujan Spectatorship theorist Jyoti Nisha talks about her film ‘Dr. BR Ambedkar: Now & Then’ (2023), Bahujan feminist gaze & how caste being talked about in cinema now from an assertive gaze is a new phenomenon.
Uttarakhand’s dammed & drowned village comes alive in Yashasvi Juyal’s epistolary elegy
‘Rains Don’t Make Us Happy Anymore’ review: Actor-dancer Raghav Juyal’s younger brother Yashasvi Juyal’s second short documentary, which premiered at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel International Film Festival 2025, tells a poignant tale of loss & displacement of the Jaunsari tribe of submerged Lohari village.
Cannes Film Festival 2025: Neeraj Ghaywan is Homebound, 10 years since Masaan at Un Certain Regard
Neeraj Ghaywan returns to Cannes Un Certain Regard after a decade, with his sophomore film 'Homebound'. His debut feature film, also Vicky Kaushal's debut, 'Masaan' won the 2015 Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Prize and FIPRESCI Prize.
Tingl Belku review: Naresh Hegde Dodmari takes a slow look at drug abuse among Karnataka’s youth
Kannada writer-director Nareshkumar Hegde Dodmari’s debut feature film Tingl Belku (The Light for the Rest of the Walk) was one of the six films at the inaugural CinévSpotlight segment at 2nd Cinévesture International Film Festival, Chandigarh.
CIFF 2025 | Little Thomas: Kaushal Oza debuts with a children’s feature, starring Gulshan Devaiah & Rasika Dugal
Cinévesture International Film Festival 2025, Chandigarh: The National Award-winning maker of Naseeruddin Shah-starrer short 'The Miniaturist of Junagadh', FTII alum Kaushal Oza’s debut feature 'Little Thomas' has been co-produced by Anurag Kashyap's Good Bad Films.
CIFF 2025 | Kaansya: Shakespeare meets Haryana’s akhadas in Aditya Watts’ debut feature
Cinevesture International Film Festival 2025: Aditya Watts's debut Haryanvi feature film 'Kaansya' would not exist if Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Omkara' and 'Maqbool' didn't exist.
The post-PSBT story: Why two PSBT showrunners went indie to produce feminist & queer documentaries
EXCLUSIVE: Delhi-based Tulika Srivastava & Ridhima Mehra, who made the Public Service Broadcasting Trust story happen for two decades, on why they chose to go it alone post-COVID, with their independent outfit Rough Edges Arts and Media
Chaar Phool Hain Aur Duniya Hai review: Achal Mishra films Vinod Kumar Shukla & Manav Kaul in a cosy chat
In his balmy documentary on the pathbreaking Hindi poet-writer Vinod Kumar Shukla, that is streaming on MUBI, independent filmmaker Achal Mishra has frozen, for posterity, the cultural fragrance and the in-between moments in the flowering of an intellectual life on film.
Sridhar Rangayan: ‘The film industry & civil society have grown to be a bit more inclusive of LGBTQ voices’
Queer filmmakers Sridhar Rangayan and Saagar Gupta on their new film Kuch Sapney Apne, which released in theatres on February 21; emerging filmmakers on positively shifting focus from coming-out stories to exploring other facets of queer life; on being trained by Kalpana Lajmi & Sai Paranjpye, and more.
Berlinale ‘Shadowbox (Baksho Bondi)’ review: Tillotama Shome pulls punches to power this Bengali drama on mothers & Others
75th Berlinale: Shome, in cinematographer Saumyananda Sahi & film editor Tanushree Das’s directorial debut Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox), competing in the new Perspectives segment, eternalises the lower-middle-class working woman, invisibilised mothers & mental health on screen as Chandan Bisht puts on a devastating show.
Natesh Hegde on Vagachipani, first Kannada film at Berlinale: ‘Let me make my films; that’s the power I want’
75th Berlin Film Festival: Karnataka filmmaker Natesh Hegde, of Pedro fame, is at Forum competition of Berlinale with Tiger's Pond (Vagachipani). His co-producer Ranjan Singh & Hegde talk about the Dileesh Pothan-starrer film, why Hegde is an outcast in the Kannada film industry & for whom he makes films.
IFFR 2025 | Lipika Singh Darai on ‘B and S’: ‘In times of crises & war, people forget to talk about tenderness’
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: Four National Award-winning indie filmmaker Lipika Singh Darai on the making of her latest epistolary film ‘B and S’, Hubert Bals Fund for her first feature ‘Birdwoman’ & choosing Odia over her mother-tongue Ho.
IFFR 2025 | Suman Mukhopadhyay: ‘Never have my films been in circulation; I’m an in-between in Bengali film industry’
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: Suman Mukhopadhyay, whose film Putulnacher Itikatha (The Puppet's Tale) is in Big Screen Competition at IFFR, and whose brilliant debut 'Herbert' completes 20 years, talks about what ails & fails Bengali cinema, literary adaptations, censorship, Anurag Kashyap & Payal Kapadia.
Amit Dutta, the little-known most famous Indian auteur: ‘The kind of films I make should be sought out, not thrust upon people’
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: In this final instalment of a two-part interview, the unparalleled Amit Dutta talks about his practice & influences, David Lynch, artist’s anxieties and trade-offs & why film bodies are irreplaceable.
‘Kumar Gandharva was not just a musical genius but also a profound scholar & thinker’: Amit Dutta & Kuldeep Barve
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025: In this first instalment of a two-part interview, indie filmmaker Amit Dutta & music composer Kuldeep Barve talk about their latest animation film 'Phool ka Chhand (Rhythm of a Flower)', on singing legend Pandit Kumar Gandharva, whose birth centenary was last year.
Sundance Film Festival 2025: Rohan Kanawade’s Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) is the silver lining queer cinema merits
Sundance Film Festival 2025: Rohan Parashuram Kanawade feature debut ‘Sabar Bonda’ is the first Marathi autofiction to wrest the tragic from queer narratives & give fleshed-out rural gay characters a safe space for tender romance.
