A New Push for Indian Cinema

By Pickle August 31, 2025

How Cameron Bailey and the Toronto International Film Festival helped redefine Indian cinema’s global journey. By Saibal Chatterjee

It was in 2005 that Cameron Bailey first travelled to India to handpick titles for the Toronto International Film Festival.

What did the programmer return with? He had in his bag Shonali Bose’s Amu for Contemporary World Cinema, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s Dreaming Lhasa for Discovery, Ashim Ahluwalia’s John & Jane for Real to Reel, and Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Kaalpurush for Masters.

That was the year that TIFF opened with a gala screening of the third film of Deepa Mehta’s Elements trilogy, Water. In the 20 years since then, both the festival and Indian independent cinema, which the TIFF CEO has consistently and vigorously championed, have grown, and the country’s presence in North America’s premier film festival has been steady and rewarding.

The likes of Noah Cowan and Steve Gravestock, now no longer with TIFF, were instrumental in bringing Indian films to TIFF in the earlier decades of the festival, but Bailey’s aggressive pursuit of films from the subcontinent significantly widened and altered the terms of engagement.

Thanks to Bailey and his team, TIFF now showcases everything from contemporary Bollywood to cutting-edge indie cinema, making it a key destination for anyone eager to explore the full spectrum of India’s cinematic talent

In the first few years of the millennium, TIFF programmed films by Mani Ratnam, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, and Buddhadeb Dasgupta. Post-2005, newer names from India’s independent cinema space began to appear on the radar with regularity.

In 2012, Bailey, who has been the CEO of TIFF since November 2021, received the title of artistic director for the festival. That year TIFF showcased a package of ten Mumbai films for its ‘City to City’ segment, which assembled, among others, directors like Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Hansal Mehta, and Anand Gandhi. His and his festival’s relationship with Indian cinema that began earlier in the new millennium was well and truly cemented.

The London-born, Barbadian-origin Canadian film critic-turned-festival programmer was, until the coronavirus pandemic interrupted the world’s plans, an annual visitor to Mumbai, where he would preview films from across the country.

Bailey chose Indian films such as Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz, Hansal Mehta’s Shahid, and Nandita Das’ Firaaq before they gained recognition in their respective countries of production. As a programmer, he also celebrated the cinema of post-Ray generation Indian masters like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Buddhadeb Dasgupta.

From programming Deepa Mehta’s Water to the latest indie successes like Homebound, TIFF’s evolving relationship with India has bridged the gap between mainstream entertainment and bold, new storytelling, offering a richer, more diverse perspective on Indian film

Bailey did not, however, shy away from programming mainstream Bollywood movies. Star-studded Hindi films like Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Singh is Kinng, and Dil Bole Hadippa have figured in the TIFF line-up as a result.

In recent years, the likes of Anurag Kashyap have blurred the line between social commentary and visceral entertainment, allowing the TIFF CEO the luxury of not relying on Bollywood kitsch. Nothing probably proves that more emphatically than the inclusion this year of Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, produced by one of the Mumbai movie industry’s top banners, Dharma Productions.

Homebound, about two young men whose friendship is severely tested by the social fault lines of Indian society, is part of TIFF’s Gala Presentations lineup, once a preserve of conventional Bollywood potboilers targeted principally at Toronto’s Indian immigrant community.

By gradually breaking down the gap between popular Bollywood films and socially relevant movies (like Kiran Rao’s Laapata Ladies in 2023 and Reema Kagti’s Superboys of Malegaon in 2024), Bailey and his programming team have made a significant change that has given Indian cinema a more global and independent identity.

TIFF has for many years been the place to be for anybody who wants to sample the diversity of Indian films—from Sthal and Boong to Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota and Thank You for Coming.