Indian director Payal Kapadia is developing two additional features set in Mumbai, potentially forming a trilogy with her acclaimed fiction feature debut “All We Imagine as Light.”
Kapadia, who just attended the Golden Globes where “All We Imagine as Light” was nominated for best non-English language film and director, revealed she has begun writing her next project, a trilogy concept that is still in early stages.
“I started writing my next movie and it’s also going to be a film in Bombay. It’s a bit early, but I’m thinking about doing two more films in Bombay, and to have this kind of a trilogy,” Kapadia tells Variety.
While it’s been surprisingly snubbed from India’s Oscar committee, the international success of “All We Imagine as Light” has led to expanded distribution opportunities in India. Following its initial Indian theatrical run, the movie was re-released in smaller cities like Kanpur and Chandigarh after receiving its Golden Globe nominations. The film is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar in India with Hindi-language subtitles.
Reacting to the harsh criticism by Jahnu Barua, head of India’s Oscar committee, who called her movie “very poor technically,” Kapadia said “I don’t know what he meant… maybe I’ll meet him one day and ask him.” Regarding the Oscar submission decision itself, she said “It would have been nice if we were selected, but it’s just a process. Every process is sometimes you get, sometimes you don’t… My entire movie was made by applying to grants, and we didn’t get many, and we got some, and we made the film finally, so it’s just part of the process. You have to take things as they come.”
Kapadia praised Rana Daggubati’s distribution company Spirit Media for taking a chance on independent cinema. “There are distributors who are willing to do other movies that are not like the big studio films,” she said. “When there is this crossover, if people start recognizing that it’s good for everybody, it would be really great for Indian independent movies.”
The film is having a banner awards season run which kicked off at Cannes when it won the Grand Prize. The drama has since scored multiple accolades including Best International Feature wins from the New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Chicago Film Critics Association and San Diego Film Critics Society. It was also named the #1 Film of the Year by The New York Times, Associated Press, Sight & Sound magazine, and Film Comment critics poll.
During the awards campaign, she has engaged with veteran filmmakers including Kore-eda Hirokazu, who discussed technical aspects of the film with her at the Tokyo International Film Festival. She has also mingled filmmakers Sean Baker, Walter Salles and Luca Guadagnino. “It was really like a dream,” she said of the experience attending the Golden Globes.
As Oscar voting approaches, distribution company Janus Films and Sideshow, alongside Cinetic Marketing & PR and Divergent PR, are managing the awards campaign. “They really know what they’re doing,” Kapadia said of their efforts to screen the film for Academy voters.
The film’s additional honors include the Gotham Award for Best International Feature, the Asian Pacific Screen Awards Grand Jury Prize, Best Film at the Montclair Film Festival, and the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival.
“All We Imagine as Light” explores contemporary working-class Mumbai through the lives of three women. The story centers on two roommates working at a city hospital – head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and recent hire Anu (Divya Prabha) – alongside their co-worker, cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam). The narrative follows their interconnected lives as Prabha, whose husband from an arranged marriage lives in Germany, navigates attention from a hospital doctor; Anu conducts a secret romance with a Muslim man against her strict Hindu family’s wishes; and Parvaty faces sudden eviction from her home.
“I like watching movies where I get very much absorbed into it, and where it can take me into this dream-like feeling. And we were trying to do this with this movie as well, with going from this very documentary feeling to something that is extremely dream-like and magic,” Kapadia said.
“All We Imagine as Light” has secured distribution in over 50 countries and its themes have resonated across cultural boundaries, particularly its exploration of urban friendship and chosen family.
“For South Asians, there are themes that we very easily connect to, like the families,” Kapadia explained. “For the West, from what I hear from people, the sort of connection between the three women and this friendship that comes in urban spaces… this idea of a chosen family when you move away from home, I think that’s what people really connect to.”