07 June,2026 09:28 AM IST | Mumbai | Tanisha Banerjee
Starring Mia Paul, Kamathipura Express is set against the backdrop of one of Mumbai’s most famed neighbourhoods
Can love survive the weight of circumstance, geography, and social stigma? That's the question at the heart of Kamathipura Express, an upcoming Indo-Polish film that follows a sex worker from Kamathipura who falls in love with a Polish man. Directed by Polish filmmaker Leon Korzynski, the film blends romance with social commentary, offering a rare cross-cultural lens on one of Mumbai's most storied neighbourhoods.
For Korzynski, the idea was born from an inability to look away from the realities he witnessed during his visits to India. "What usually draws me to a story is a certain kind of inner disturbance - anger, frustration, or the feeling that I do not fully understand something," he says. "My time in Kamathipura, my four journeys to India, and the stories I heard there gave me a very strong need to face this subject. In many ways, this film is my love letter to a city and to people I came to love."
At the centre of the story is a seemingly impossible question. "Is this kind of love even possible?" Korzynski asks. "Can two young people from completely different worlds, carrying completely different experiences, really reach each other?"
While the film explores romance, it does not shy away from the darker realities of trafficking and exploitation. "There is also a brutal reality behind the film that I still find almost impossible to understand - a father selling his own daughter to a brothel. I do not know how a human being can do that, and yet it happens," he says.
Playing one of the film's most complex characters is Hardeep Gupta, who portrays Madame Parpatii, a brothel madam. Far from a one-dimensional antagonist, Gupta describes her character as someone shaped by trauma and survival. "Madame Parpatii is a complex character because she is both a victim and a perpetrator of a brutal system," Gupta says. "She is not a simple villain; she is a product of a harsh reality."
The role required extensive preparation. Gupta says much of the process involved building the character's history through conversations with Korzynski and the writing team. "We spent considerable time exploring who Madame Parpatii was, where she came from, what experiences had shaped her, and what kind of emotional and psychological baggage she carried," she says. "Building that backstory was extremely important because it helped me understand not just what she did, but why she had become the person she was."
Although she has portrayed strong women before, Gupta says this role felt different because of its realism. "She wasn't a stereotypical or dramatised brothel owner of the kind we often see in mainstream films. She felt like a real person - someone who had endured immense hardship herself and had been shaped, and perhaps damaged, by her circumstances."
The production itself was as unusual as its story. Made largely by a young Polish crew with limited resources, the film became an exercise in cultural collaboration. Korzynski recalls being overwhelmed by the support he received in India. "The biggest surprise for me was the generosity and willingness to help that we experienced in India," he says. "By the end of the shoot we felt almost like a family."
As for what he hopes audiences take away from Kamathipura Express, Korzynski isn't looking to provide easy answers. "I hope people leave the film asking themselves whether this kind of love is truly possible," he says. "Are the differences between these two people too big, or can love still exist despite them?"
If the film succeeds, viewers may find themselves pondering that question long after the train has reached its final destination.
