KHILAWADI
India takes centre stage in Kazan this September as filmmaker Shobhita Thakur 's KHILAWADI (The One Who Plays) heads to the prestigious XXII Kazan International Altyn Minbar Film Festival in Russia. Officially selected for the Short Feature Competition, the 27-minute film will have its grand Russian premiere from September 4-9.
The selection marks another significant milestone in the journey of the film, placing an intensely Indian story before an international audience at one of Russia's prominent film festivals. KHILAWADI stands as the only Indian film representing the country in this highly curated Short Feature category.
The Kazan International Film Festival has long stood as a beacon for serious global cinema, having previously hosted and honoured legendary masters of film and art, including Catherine Deneuve, Adrien Brody, Isabelle Adjani and Emir Kusturica. Guided by a philosophy rooted in humanism, cultural tradition and peace, Kazan curates cinema that engages with universal human values.
This year, the competition was particularly formidable. From 66 competing nations, the International Selection Committee, headed by distinguished film expert and VGIK scholar Nina Kochelyaeva, handpicked an exclusive final line-up of just 54 films representing 21 countries. In the Short Feature category, only 10 films from around the globe made the final cut.
What makes the Kazan selection particularly significant is that the film does not merely travel internationally; it carries with it a distinctly Indian social reality. At a time when Indian cinema is increasingly finding audiences across borders, Thakur's film brings to the global stage a story rooted in caste- and gender-based oppression, with childhood trauma and the fundamental human right to choose one's own future at its core.
KHILAWADI follows Sapna, a 12-year-old girl from the denotified Banchhada community of Madhya Pradesh. After encountering a woman doctor at a local healthcare centre, Sapna develops a dream that seems simple for any child but is radical within her circumstances: she wants to become a doctor.
Her dream, however, comes up against a generational system of caste-based prostitution that threatens to determine her future before she is old enough to determine it herself.
Rather than approaching this difficult reality through sensationalism, Thakur places the child and her imagination at the emotional heart of the film. Sapna's dream becomes a quiet act of resistance, a child's refusal to accept that her birth must dictate her destiny.
That deeply local story has already travelled remarkably far. KHILAWADI has built an impressive festival profile across India and overseas, receiving selections and recognition in Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Turkey, the UK, Egypt and Russia, alongside a strong presence at important Indian festivals.
Its international journey began making waves in Canada at the FascinAsian Film Festival, where it had its world premiere across Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. The film went on to receive the Audience Choice Award in Calgary, as well as Best Film and the Building Bridges Award in Edmonton.
Back in India, the film won Best Short Film at the Buddha International Film Festival, Pune, and subsequently received the Ritwik Ghatak Bronze Award at the 9th South Asian Short Film Festival in Kolkata, as well as an Honourable Mention from the Jury at the 15th KSIFF, Kolkata.
For director Shobhita Thakur, this momentous journey represents the possibilities of independent filmmaking to create meaningful stories when conviction meets craft. Her education at FTII, Pune, gave her the aesthetic, philosophical and technical foundation; years of professional experience across filmmaking and media sharpened her storytelling instincts; KHILAWADI has given her a voice of her own.
An author as well as a filmmaker, Thakur believes that a filmmaker must deeply engage with society, and that cinema cannot exist in isolation from the world it observes, questions and reflects upon. Her writing and think pieces, exploring society, philosophy, politics and contemporary realities, have appeared in leading publications including The Hindu , Frontline , New Delhi Post , and several national and international platforms. This engagement with the world around her continues to inform her cinematic practice, as she remains committed to telling stories deeply rooted in social realities.
What began as one filmmaker's courage to confront the uncomfortable truths and deep-seated injustices within our social fabric has now grown into a powerful cinematic journey across the world. A story that began in the heartland of Madhya Pradesh has quietly travelled far beyond its origins, reaching audiences in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, and then Mexico, Italy, France and Turkey. Now, it makes its way to Kazan, Russia, carrying with it the voice of a deeply Indian story.
As KHILAWADI continues its journey across the world's film festivals, Shobhita Thakur is steadily taking an uncompromisingly Indian story, and her own distinctive voice as a filmmaker, to audiences far beyond the borders of India.
The Russian premiere in Kazan is not merely another stop on that journey. It is a moment in which Indian cinema, independent filmmaking and one filmmaker's singular voice arrive on the world stage with a story that speaks to a universal question: how much of a child's future should be determined by the circumstances of her birth?
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