In a world where everyone is moving at a breakneck speed, filmmaker Anuparna Roy lives up to the proverb -- slow and steady wins the race. When films are being made within an average span ranging between 15 days and a couple of months, the winner of the Orizzonti Award for best director at Venice Film Festival took more than two years to make her 77-minute-long award-winning film, Songs of Forgotten Trees.
Slowly coming to terms with her post-win, Roy is already endeavouring to make her third film, set against the backdrop of early 20th-century British Bengal, where two women fight for existence and true liberation.
Excerpts of a conversation with Roy on her next film, why she sticks by her speech at the recently concluded Venice Film Festival, and why it miffs her when her award-winning film is being labelled as a tale of sisterhood, when it is not.
How much has life changed after winning an award at the world’s oldest film festival?
This is a life-changing event for me. I am now so optimistic that I will get producers, and I will get to make yet another film. However, the unnecessary controversy over my speech that is trying to overshadow the win is something that is hurting me a little. I couldn’t process it initially when my name was announced. I felt, did cinema really win? Did my relentless efforts and labour finally get the recognition it deserved? I thank our Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, from the bottom of my heart for congratulating us on social media. I have been missing my hometown, Purulia, a lot since I haven’t had the opportunity to visit my home for a long time. I live and manage on my own in an expensive city like Mumbai, which doesn’t leave me with much choice to visit my family often. I hope I can make it soon.
You are the fifth Indian and second woman from our country (after Mira Nair) to win at the Venice Film Festival. How does it make you feel?
It has made me a lot more responsible as a filmmaker now. No matter how uncomfortable any situation gets, whether politically or personally, I have to forget that and keep making good cinema. That’s the bigger fight, going forward.
What was the inspiration behind the film’s narrative?
First, I want to clarify that it’s pretty annoying to see media reports stating that this is a film about sisterhood. It isn’t. It’s a romantic relationship story of two women who share a flat. Describing it as a story of sisterhood is a wrong portrayal. It’s a tale that depicts the struggle to express the feelings they feel for each other, in which Mumbai is a secondary context.
When I was a child, I saw how my maternal grandma formed a great bond with her stepdaughter after my grandpa’s demise. They used to run the household smoothly without any help from men. If one cooked, the other fed children; while one did chores, the other earned. I took a leaf from that and further developed a story around how it would be if two such women were romantically drawn to each other.
You took over two years to finally make the film…
I came to Mumbai in August 2022, with a job in hand, and I was initially scared when I decided to leave the job and pursue my passion. My parents were skeptical but I ended up taking the risk. In December 2022, I started shooting the film, which was completed in December 2023. The entire 2024 and nearly a quarter of 2025 were spent in post-production work. When it got selected for the Venice Film Festival, it was admitted as a work-in-progress film.
I took so long because I wanted it to be perfect. I didn’t give up, and sat many times over for editing since I wanted to make it with a lot of care. During this phase, I became frightened and had doubts several times about what I was doing. But I didn’t stop until I was satisfied. I needed to be sure about the craft, and even if it got abandoned in the process, I wouldn’t have cared, but I wanted to make it perfectly.
When did the bug of cinema bite you?
As a child, when I used to watch Bengali commercial cinema starring Tapas Paul and Prosenjit Chatterjee, I wanted to be a part of that world. When I started studying English literature in college, I realised I could be a writer, and then my first short film, Run to the River, happened. Reputed editor Anirban Maity has been a huge support and mentor in my life. He edited the short without any remuneration, guided me and even funded the festival rounds for the film. I am also eternally grateful to Paresh Kamdar, who was the post-production mentor for the film Songs of Forgotten Trees. Producers like Ranjan Singh, Romil Jain, Bibhanshu Rai and Anurag Kashyap came into the scene, and we pulled it off together.
How was Anurag Kashyap as a producer?
Anurag Kashyap was a good friend of Ranjan Singh, and I wanted him to watch my film, guide me and advise me. He liked it so much that he ended up joining us as a presenter in August 2025.
When I expressed my desire to speak about Palestine, if I win at the festival, he advised me against it, since it might lead to unnecessary controversy. But when I indeed got the award, I thought I must take a stand and use the platform to say what’s right. But it’s annoying how it is being wrongly interpreted and how I am being called out. But I can’t help it.
In hindsight, do you regret saying it?
Not at all. I would have said what I said. And I haven’t spoken for Palestine just now. In Russia, too, where my first film was screened, I talked about Palestine, but back then, no one knew me or my cinema. My point is, if any injustice is happening in any corner of the world, I have to speak against it as a global citizen, but it’s not right to question my identity as an Indian for that. What’s happening there isn’t right.
What’s your next film on?
The next film will be set in British Bengal, but it will be about a different kind of freedom. It’s a period drama set in the 1930s, but the focus will not be on the freedom struggle. It’s a tale of two women during that time, trying to keep the household together while also trying to get a taste of liberation.
When will Song of Forgotten Trees release in India?
We will take a little time before releasing it here. We have already Celluloid Dreams on board to take it to other global film festivals of repute.
What kind of movies inspire you?
I don’t remember the first film I watched, but the first film that impacted me deeply was Ritwik Ghatak’s Titas Ekti Nadir Naam. I love Third World cinema, and I don’t want to talk about a world I haven’t seen. I want to talk about the marginalised world and characters that I have seen and relate to. So, my research is always around Third World cinema. I love Jafar Panahi’s films and Jia Zhangke, particularly his film, Still Life. I love their lucid and simple narratives. I love Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, which really hit me, Hot Milk by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, and Manta Ray by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng.
What do you love doing when not making or watching cinema?
I love reading, and I go on a guilt trip if I miss reading. Nowadays, I explore a lot of genres, and currently, I am reading J Krishnamurti. I love reading him, and his books have given me a new perspective and evolved me as a human. I love reading James Joyce and the African author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o. In non-fiction, Joya Chatterjee is one of my favourite writers. Her research on British Bengal is deep, and I personally messaged her while making Run to the River, which is about a girl child getting wed to a freedom fighter and how she has never seen a river in her life and yearns to see it.