The joy of seeing one’s film travel to an international festival never fades, regardless of how long one has been in the industry. Filmmaker Ananth Mahadevan affirmed that when mid-day caught up with him to discuss Pastt Tense, his upcoming feature that is set to have its world première at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM). “Once I started doing films like Red Alert: The War Within [2010], Staying Alive [2012], Gour Hari Dastaan [2015], all my films right up to Phule [2025] have been featured at international festivals. So now if it doesn’t feature, I would be disappointed. But then, I wouldn’t make a film that is not considered for global standards,” he said.

A newspaper report sparked the idea for Pastt Tense. While the core story of a son searching for the biological mother who abandoned him at birth came from the report, the filmmaker said “everything else I developed on my own”.