India is mounting its most comprehensive presence at the Berlinale in recent years, with six films screening across the festival’s Generation, Forum, Forum Expanded and Classics sections while the National Film Development Corporation of India deploys a strategic market approach aimed at positioning the country as a holistic creative economy hub.
Rima Das’ “Not a Hero,” R. Gowtham’s “Members of the Problematic Family,” Madhusree Dutta’s “Flying Tigers,” Amay Mehrishi’s “Abracadabra,” Utkarsh’s “A Circle as the Center of the Whole” and the 4K restoration of Arundhati Roy and Pradip Krishen’s “In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones” represent diverse cinematic approaches from established and emerging voices, underscoring the breadth of India’s current independent film landscape.Das, whose “Village Rockstars” became India’s official entry for the 2019 Academy Awards, returns to Berlin’s Generation section with “Not a Hero,” a coming-of-age story centered on 11-year-old Mivan navigating displacement between urban and rural worlds.
“Children experience the world without filters,” Das says. “Through Mivan, I was drawn to a way of seeing where confusion, resistance, and tenderness coexist naturally. He does not analyse his emotions, he lives them.”
Das notes a significant shift in her working methodology with child actors compared to her previous work. “The children in ‘Not a Hero’ were very different from those in ‘Village Rockstars,’” she explains. “In ‘Village Rockstars,’ the children listened to me. In ‘Not a Hero,’ I listened to them.”
The film’s title deliberately pushes back against conventional narrative arcs. “I wanted to avoid the idea that growing up is about overcoming or winning,” Das says. “Mivan does not arrive as a savior, nor does he conquer his circumstances. His journey is quieter, shaped by listening, failing, waiting, and learning to stay.”
.”The film does not explain emotions or resolve conflicts neatly,” she adds. “It trusts young audiences to sit with ambiguity, discomfort, and tenderness.”
“Members of the Problematic Family,” screening in Forum, takes a structurally experimental approach to grief and family dynamics. Director R. Gowtham describes the narrative as intentionally fragmented, mirroring his own speech patterns.“The script itself was written without all those conventional beginnings and ends,” Gowtham says. “During the post we found it has some structure to it. In fact my co-producer Mukesh Subramananiam told me the structurelessness is the film’s structure.”
The filmmaker notes that early test audiences’ confusion was actually a desired outcome during the development process. Despite Tamil-specific pop culture references, the film has connected with viewers beyond its immediate cultural context, according to Gowtham, who cites positive responses at Film Bazaar in Goa from Hindi-speaking filmmakers.
In the Forum section, Madhusree Dutta’s “Flying Tigers” weaves personal memory with World War II history, tracing a massive U.S. military logistics operation across the Himalayas that connected Assam and Kunming. The project originated from the filmmaker’s mother’s childhood memories in a tea plantation settlement and her later struggles with Alzheimer’s disease.
“My mother’s Alzheimer’s-induced memory eventually turned into a lens through which I could see and understand the contemporary web of wars and infrastructures,” Dutta says. The film marks a departure for the filmmaker, who previously focused on urban cultures and feminist narratives.
“In my earlier works I have never featured myself,” Dutta notes. “But in this film I felt compelled to place myself as a protagonist. This film is a gift from my mother to me.”
The Berlinale Classics section features the 4K restoration of “In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones,” a 1989 campus comedy written by and starring Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. Directed by Pradip Krishen and originally made for Indian state broadcaster Doordarshan, the film is set in a Delhi architecture school in the mid-1970s and has achieved cult status over the decades. The cast includes early roles for Shah Rukh Khan and Manoj Bajpayee, alongside lead performances from Arjun Raina, Roshan Seth and Roy herself.
The restoration, spearheaded by the Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata’s laboratory in association with NFDC and the National Film Archive of India, marks the organization’s first presentation at the festival. The film went out of circulation after a single television screening and has been largely inaccessible for nearly four decades.
In Generation Kplus, Amay Mehrishi’s “Abracadabra,” a U.K.-India co-production, examines identity and belonging through the lens of a school bus journey. The short film follows Agastya as he navigates guilt and unspoken emotions when his best friend chooses to sit elsewhere during a ride that feels both endless and fleeting.
The Forum Expanded section includes “A Circle as the Center of the Whole,” a documentary short by director Utkarsh. The U.S.-India co-production uses Delhi as a site of constant excavation, employing archaeology as both method and metaphor to reveal absences in the ground around which the city forms.
India’s presence at the festival extends beyond the screening sections. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder of Film Heritage Foundation, serves on the main competition jury alongside director Wim Wenders and other global names. Sundance and Cannes-winning director Shaunak Sen sits on the documentary award jury.
Beyond the screening sections and jury representation, India’s presence extends to the European Film Market through the Bharat Pavilion and WAVES Bazaar initiatives, reflecting a broader strategic positioning.
“India’s presence at Berlinale and the European Film Market reflects our larger ambition to engage with the world not only through films, but through a holistic creative economy,” says Prakash Magdum, managing director of NFDC. “Through the Bharat Pavilion and WAVES Bazaar, we are creating a structured platform that brings together content, technology, talent, archives, and education – enabling long-term global partnerships and meaningful cultural exchange.”
The Bharat Pavilion, running Feb. 12-18, functions as India’s official hub at EFM, serving as a unified platform for engagement and B2B interactions. Under the WAVES Bazaar framework, the initiative includes multiple market-facing components: four Indian gaming and technology startups participating in WAVES X at the EFM Innovation & Tech Hub, four animation companies engaging in EFM Animation Days from Feb. 12-14, and eight sponsored filmmakers selected for international market participation.
Bharat Parv, scheduled for Feb. 13, serves as a flagship networking initiative focused on industry connections, co-production dialogue and partnership building with global stakeholders.
The National Film Archive of India participates in the EFM Archives Market on Feb. 17, highlighting restoration initiatives and archival collaborations. That same day, leading Indian film education institutions including FTII, IICT and SRFTI participate in the Berlinale Film School Summit, positioning India as a hub for film education and talent development.