3rd July, 5pm: AIFF is hosting Ritwik Pareek, director, Prerna Pareek, producer and the entire team of Dug Dug. A film about a motorcycle shrine and a Rajasthani roadside legend that went all the way to the Toronto International Film Festival, and now it’s coming back home to Jaipur where the story actually began.
Catch the screening, hear the team talk about how a local legend turned into a film that travelled the world.
Source: @ avinasharundhaware on Instagram.
My blood boils.
The film follows Anahita, a troubled teen who finds solace in Shalini, a mysterious history teacher leading a trek to an ancient site called ‘The Navel.’ The school excursion takes a dark turn as connections emerge between the site and a cult worshipping Bokshi, a feared folkloric demoness.
Shot over 80 days across remote Himalayan locations in Sikkim, West Bengal and Assam, the independent production features dialogue in Hindi, English, Nepali and Boksirit – a fully developed fictional language created for the film by Dutch linguist Jan van Steenbergen.
Source: Variety Magazine
Link: https://variety.com/2026/film/markets-festivals/indian-folk-horror-bokshi-spain-deal-wild-duck-1236751371/
Source: @ persistenceofcinema on Instagram.
The film, which also examines the intersections of patriarchy, masculinity, Hindutva fundamentalism, and anti-Muslim violence in India, is no longer available on Patwardhan’s official YouTube channel.
Questioning YouTube’s decision, Patwardhan wrote on Facebook, “Youtube censorship again! Father, Son and Holy War is my 1995 film which got a U/A censor certificate, two National Awards and the Supreme Court of India ordered Doordarshan to screen it at prime time in the public interest. Yet now, 30 years later, Youtube has decided that it is too ‘violent!’”
Defending the film, Patwardhan said it documents violence rather than glorifies it.
“It is a documentary that records the violence caused by religious fanatics and politicians vying for power. It is an expose of violence, not an endorsement of it. Shame on Youtube! Remove the censors, not good sense,” he wrote.
According to a Bollywood Hungama report, the team was not chasing a wide release but a targeted one. As per the report, "The makers of 'Bandar' planned for an audience-orientated release, requesting only 4 shows in 5-screen multiplexes and 3 shows in 4-screen plexes post 1 pm, which seems a fair and doable ask. But since PVR Inox and Cinepolis are distributing 'Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai' and PVR is partly distributing 'Peddi' for Jio Studios, the national chains have allotted unfair shows to 'Bandar'.
As a result, the film team has asked the big chains not to showcase the movie. The report added, "The Bandar team has taken a firm stance and asked the national chains to put the programming of its film on hold until the showcasing is sorted, especially since the 'Bandar' makers believe that the advance sales of 'Peddi' and 'Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai' are underwhelming."
The film is based on a true story of a man who goes down a rabbit hole trying to buy a gold necklace for his wife on the occasion of Dhanteras.
Source: @lettersfromcinema
The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune is pleased to share that a student film produced by the Institute has been officially selected for the La Cinef programme of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, scheduled to be held from May 12 to May 23, 2026, in Cannes, France.
The selected film, ‘Shadows of The Moonless Nights’, is directed by Mehar Malhotra, a 2020 batch student of the Post Graduate Diploma in Direction and Screenplay Writing. The film follows a night factory worker grappling with exhaustion and the invisible toll of sleepless urban labour.
La Cinef is a prestigious section of the Cannes Film Festival dedicated to student films from leading film schools worldwide. Selection in this section is considered a significant international recognition for emerging filmmakers.
This marks the fifth FTII student film to be represented at La Cinef since 2017, reaffirming the Institute’s continued presence on the globally respected cinematic platform.
Source: ftiiofficial
Source: Anurag Kashyap on Instagram.