From India, Reema Kagti and Ruchika Oberoi’s Dahaad (Roar) is selected in the Berlinale Series, starring Bollywood star Sonakshi Sinha, Vijay Varma and Gulshan Devaiah. The series is produced by Zoya Akhtar of Tiger Baby—she had directed Gully Boy that was at the Berlinale in 2019—and Excel Entertainment. Abhinay Deo’s Brown, a crime series produced by Zee Studios that is Karisma Kapoor’s comeback series, is selected in Berlinale Series Market Selects, so in the market section.

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In the main official selection for films, Chhatrapal Ninawe’s Ghaath (Ambush, in Marathi), starring Jitendra Joshi, is in the Panorama section. Sreemoyee Singh’s personal documentary Be Kucheye Khoshbakht, And Towards Happy Alleys, shot in Iran, in Farsi, is also in Panorama. Ashish Bende’s Aatmapamphlet (Autobio-Pamphlet, Marathi, is in Generation 14-plus for teenagers and adults). Priya Sen’s No Stranger At All is in the Forum Expanded section that explores the relations between cinema and the other arts. Assamese director Gautam Bora’s An Autumn in Ländchen Bärwalde, his 1983 student film, made when he was studying film direction at the film school HFF Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is also being screened in a restored version in the Forum. Also in the Forum is an exhibition Our Daughters Shall Inherit the Wealth of Our Stories: The Imaginactivism of Yugantar Film Collective. The Yugantar Film Collective, India’s first feminist film collective, was established around 1980-1983. 
Finally there’s Satyajit Ray’s Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956), in the Retrospective section. Its series Young At Heart asked 28 filmmakers worldwide to choose their favourite coming of age film, and this is Aparna Sen’s choice.

As for the 22 South Asian Berlinale Talents who were selected in 2023, 2022 and 2021, the festival has very generously also invited those who were selected in previous years, when the Berlinale Talents was held online. The Indian Berlinale Talents include Modhura Palit, Udit Khurana, Koel Sen, Gayle Sequeira, Apoorva Charan (Indian-American), Nihaarika Negi, Pooja Chauhan, Payal Sethi, Prantik Basu, Tanmoy Dutta and Ameya Gupta. There are also many Berlinale Talents selected from Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Myanmar. Shuchi Talati has been invited as a Mastercard Talents Footprints Fellow of 2022, and critic Nirmal Dhar has been selected on the FIPRESCI Jury of the Berlinale—it is the prestigious jury of the International Federation of Film Critics. All in all, a historic year for India and South Asia.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. 
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com