In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones director opens up about writer Arundhati Roy's absence from Berlinale premiere

Arundhati Roy wrote and fronted the film. Pics/Wikimedia Commons, Instagram, Youtube

You can travel back to the 1980s this weekend, as Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy's film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989) will arrive in theatres after 37 years. The movie, fronted and written by Roy, was restored by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur via Film Heritage Foundation and had its world première at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival. Proud to have taken the classic to the prestigious film festival, Dungarpur said, "When the film was [restored and] ready, we thought of Berlin because it was almost the end of 2025."

Even as the film's director Pradip Krishen and Dungarpur attended the première, Roy was conspicuously absent. She withdrew from the gala after the festival jury president, director Wim Wenders, said that filmmakers should stay out of politics when asked about the conflict in Gaza.

The film's première on February 16; (right) Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

Did her absence hurt Dungarpur, who was also a member of the Berlinale jury? "That was her decision about something which had no bearing on [the film]. She didn't want to come, and we respected her decision. It didn't hurt me at all," he reflected.

The screening meant a lot to Dungarpur, who acquired the film's print from Krishen in 2024. Restoration wasn't even on his mind initially. "I got to know that Pradip wanted to give away the material. After looking at Annie's print, I told him I'd like to restore it. I wanted to do it because it reminded me of the time I had seen the film at FTII [Film & Television Institute of India] and was moved by it. I wanted the young generation to see it," said Dungarpur, who spent one-and-a-half years on the restoration.

Spot Khan if you can

Shah Rukh Khan appeared in a brief role in the 1989 film