BY TANUSHREE GHOSH
Photo: Ranabir Das
May 23, 2024
Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light’ created history by putting India back in Competition after 30 years, since Shaji N Karun’s ‘Swaham’ (1994), and becoming the first Indian film to win the Grand Prix
Payal Kapadia, 38, is the first Indian woman director to be nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or and the first woman to win the Grand Prix, the second highest award at Cannes Film Festival
Photo: Ranabir Das
Artist Nalini Malani’s daughter Payal Kapadia studied at Rishi Valley School and Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India. FTII slapped her with disciplinary action & FIR, cut her grant
Payal was a frontrunner in one of FTII’s longest student strikes (139 days in 2015), protesting TV actor Gajendra Chauhan's appointment as FTII head
Payal Kapadia’s FTII diploma film ‘Afternoon Clouds’, about a 60-year-old and her Nepali house help, was in 2017 Cannes’ Cinéfondation competition
Replete with artist Arpita Singh’s paintings, Payal’s experimental short film ‘And What is the Summer Saying’ (2018) competed in Berlinale Shorts
‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ (2021) documentary has a university student writing letters to her estranged lover that reflect the drastic changes around her
Payal’s documentary ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ (2021), about longing, blends dance with archival found footage, in the backdrop of a university protest
Payal Kapadia became the first Indian to win L’OEil d’or (Golden Eye) for her documentary ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ at 74th Cannes Film Festival
The multilingual ‘All We Imagine as Light’ stars Malayalam actors Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha, and features Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi
‘All We Imagine as Light’ follows two nurses (Kani Kusruti & Divya Prabha) from Kerala who are roommates in Mumbai. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest
Divya Prabha plays the young nurse Anu in ‘All We Imagine as Light’ love with Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon)
Malayalam actress Divya Prabha has done films like the ‘Take Off’, ‘Thamaasha’, ‘Malik’, ‘Ariyippu’/’Declaration’ and ‘Family’ in the last seven years
Hridhu Haroon was born in Chennai and is known for films like 'Thugs' and 'Mumbaikar' (2023) and 'All We Imagine as Light' (2024)
The inimitable Kani Kusruti, who plays Prabha in ‘All We Imagine as Light’, has delivered power-packed performances in ‘Counterfeit Kunkoo’, ‘Biriyaani’, ‘Pada’, ‘Vazhakku’, ‘Nishiddho’, ‘Poacher’, ‘Killer Soup’, ‘Maharani’, ‘Girls will be Girls’, etc.
The dynamic Marathi and Bollywood actress Chhaya Kadam is known for ‘Jawan’, ‘Jhund’, ‘Laapataa Ladies’, ‘Madgaon Express’, ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, ‘Andhadhun’, and ‘Fandry’, ‘Kaun Pravin Tambe?’, ‘Paachuvum Albhuthavilakkum’
‘All We Imagine as Light’ also features Malayalam actor and comedian Azees Nedumangad