Annie’s song

Roy, who became the first Indian filmmaker to win the Orizzonti Award in 2025, tells Ranjita Ganesan about the rebellious road she took to make Songs of Forgotten Trees

- RANJITA GANESAN

Anuparna Roy did not want to make one of those festival movies where Mumbai becomes a character. So the director avoided scenes in local trains or by the seaside, had the two female leads of Songs of Forgotten Trees move into her own rental home, and filmed them interacting mainly within its confines. A trademark Mumbai moment did, however, occur during the shoot: The owner of the apartment evicted her. When the film went on to win Roy an Orizzonti award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival in early September last year, the same landlady returned with congratulations.

“She had thrown me out for shooting there

without her knowing, but texted so nicely afterwards,” Roy grins.

‘The episode demonstrates two things about the filmmaker: She is used to breaking the rules, and she often gets her way.

When I arrive for our lunch at Sorozai, a cheerful Goan-themed restaurant, Roy is already there. This is one of her favourite spots in Versova, a part of town where many of the city’s cinema folk live. The director, known as “Annie” to her friends, appears relaxed but somewhat tired slouched against the sofa. She has been in the thick of apartment hunting, all over again, and apologetically disappears into texts and a call with the broker before we start talking.

Our meeting takes place after her return from Italy. Despite the prestigious win, the first such for an Indian filmmaker, she was received coldly by a few sections. In her acceptance speech, she had declared solidarity with Palestine, adding that that “might upset my country”. As her film’s backer Anurag Kashyap had foreseen, speaking her mind thus earned backlash from nationalist commentators.