India’s Indie Wave Storms TIFF 50 and Beyond: Six Powerful Films Redefining Global Festival Cinema in 2025

While mainstream Bollywood blockbusters and South Indian commercial spectacles are locked in a perennial box office duel, a quiet but potent movement is unfolding off-screen. It’s happening in corners of the country where stories breathe without filters — where language, gender, and geography intersect in deeply rooted, raw narratives. It’s the world of Indian independent cinema — and in 2025, it’s commanding attention at the world’s most prestigious film festivals.

From Berlin to Busan, Toronto to Sundance, six remarkable Indian films — in Bengali, Malayalam, Assamese, Marathi, and Hindi — are preparing to leave their mark. What binds them together is not their language or genre, but their commitment to truth. To lived experience. To filmmaking that listens, observes, and resonates.

Let’s take a deeper look at these standout features:

1. Baksho Bondi (Bengali)

Directors: Tanushree Das and Saumyananda SahiFestival: Berlin International Film Festival

At first glance, Baksho Bondi (translated as “Boxed In”) may seem like a quiet domestic story — a woman in a small room ironing clothes. But under the surface, it pulsates with the silent power of lives caught in claustrophobic routines. Directors Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi craft a minimalist masterpiece that speaks volumes with silence.

The film centers around a working-class woman navigating the invisibility of household labor, emotional stagnation, and subtle rebellion. There are no melodramatic arcs here — just the weight of living a life tucked away behind walls, both literal and societal.

Sahi, known for his documentary work and visual poetics (Aise Hee, Remembering Kurdi), brings an anthropological eye, while Tanushree Das infuses the narrative with a sharp feminist lens. Together, they deliver a film that feels like a whisper — but lands like a punch.

2. Guptam or The Last of Them Plagues (Malayalam)

Director: Kunjila MascillamaniFestival: Busan International Film Festival (upcoming)

With a title as evocative as Guptam or The Last of Them Plagues, director Kunjila Mascillamani invites us into a space of myth, trauma, and suppressed memory. Set in a post-pandemic Kerala, the film traces the psychological and emotional toll of catastrophe on women’s lives — perhaps even hinting at ecological grief, generational scars, or forgotten revolutions.

Kunjila, a fiercely political voice in Malayalam cinema, is known for breaking narrative convention and pushing against patriarchal structures. Her storytelling is often poetic and surreal — a blend that works beautifully in this dream-like tapestry.

With a cast led by Jeo Baby (director of The Great Indian Kitchen) and Kani Kusruti (who won hearts in Biriyaani), Guptam promises layered performances and haunting imagery. Expect this one to linger long after the credits roll.

3. Village Rockstars 2 (Assamese)

Director: Rima DasFestival: Berlin International Film Festival

When Rima Das introduced us to Village Rockstars in 2017, the world took notice. Shot single-handedly in her village in Assam using non-professional actors, the film won the National Award and became India’s official Oscar entry. Now, Das returns with Village Rockstars 2 — a continuation of that deeply personal world.

The sequel picks up with new characters but retains the same earthy texture: rural children dreaming of music, navigating poverty, loss, and joy with startling resilience. Rima Das once again wears multiple hats — as writer, director, editor, and cinematographer — crafting cinema that is intimate, immersive, and unpretentious.

More than a sequel, Village Rockstars 2 feels like a return home — not just for its characters, but for viewers longing for stories untarnished by spectacle.

4. Sabar Bonda (Marathi)

Director: Rohan Parshuram KanawadeFestival: Sundance Film Festival

Set against the quiet landscape of rural Maharashtra, Sabar Bonda (loosely translated as “Patient Bond”) tells a delicate story of love — not loud or defiant, but subtle and real.

The film revolves around two men who find refuge in each other under a tree, far from the noise of societal expectations. There are no grand declarations here, just moments of vulnerability and mutual understanding.

Rohan Kanawade, best known for his short film U for Usha, is among the few Marathi filmmakers boldly exploring LGBTQIA+ narratives with dignity and restraint. In Sabar Bonda, his focus is not on conflict but on connection — making this film a rare gem in queer Indian cinema.

Its Sundance selection underscores the international appetite for such tender, grounded storytelling.

5. Difficult Daughters

Director: Soni RazdanFestival: Busan International Film Festival (upcoming)

Actor-turned-director Soni Razdan steps behind the camera to helm Difficult Daughters, a drama that possibly draws inspiration from Manju Kapur’s landmark novel. While plot details are under wraps, the title and Razdan’s literary inclinations suggest a layered, intergenerational story set in the backdrop of Partition or post-colonial India.

Known for her elegance and emotional intelligence as an actor, Razdan brings the same qualities to her filmmaking. Her film is expected to explore the internal lives of women who carry the burden of familial expectations, historical trauma, and self-discovery.

This marks an exciting directorial turn for Razdan, with Busan offering the perfect stage to debut a nuanced, feminist historical drama.

6. Homebound (Hindi)

Director: Neeraj GhaywanFestival: Toronto International Film Festival (upcoming)

Few filmmakers working in Hindi cinema today are as emotionally intelligent and politically aware as Neeraj Ghaywan. After Masaan and his Ajeeb Daastaans short Geeli Pucchi, Ghaywan has cemented himself as a master of the personal-political narrative.

Homebound appears to be a story of return — to childhood friendships, to one’s village, to a part of the self long left behind. Featuring two young men and what seems to be a carefree, nostalgic bond, the film may unpack themes of caste, migration, and the ache of urban dislocation.

As always with Ghaywan, expect a slow burn — where every smile, silence, and sigh is loaded with meaning.

India at the Crossroads of Global Indie Cinema

What makes these six films extraordinary is not just where they come from — Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, or Mumbai — but what they represent: a new wave of Indian cinema. One that is fearless in its form, radical in its politics, and gentle in its touch.

These films aren’t trying to compete with commercial cinema. They’re doing something much harder — redefining what Indian stories look and sound like on the global stage. And in doing so, they’re opening the floodgates for regional, queer, feminist, and working-class voices to be heard.

Whether it’s Berlin or Busan, Toronto or Sundance — India isn’t just attending these festivals. It’s arriving with purpose. And this time, the world is listening.