Cinema is a religion, big screen is its temple

Filmmaker Aditya Kripalani talks about his latest film, I Am Not An Actor, working with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and what he believes Hindi cinema needs to do to overcome its content slump

- KARTIK BHARDWAJ

INDIE filmmaker Aditya Kripalani, known for films like Tikli and Laxmi Bomb (2017) and Not Today (2022), has teamed up with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Chitrangada Satarupa to create I Am Not An Actor (Main Actor Nahin Hoon). The film recently had its world premiere at the 2025 Cinequest Film Festival in California. I Am Not An Actor unfolds over a video call between two different worldsIndia and Germany-and between two very different people: a puritanical actor (Chitrangada) and a 55year-old retired banker who is also an aspiring actor (Nawazuddin). "Four years ago, during the pandemic, we were making a film called Father Like in Singapore," says Aditya. "It had one actor coming from India and another who was supposed to be a Singaporean Chinese man. We prepped for the film, but due to COVID-19, the Singaporean government refused to let the Indian actor in." To work around this production hurdle, Aditya wrote a new script in just seven days.

"I wrote something in which actors wouldn't need to travel.