Indian Panorama Opens a Wider Window on India

By Pickle  November 13, 2026

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Indian Panorama’s two opening films offer a concise introduction to the breadth of Indian cinema: Aditya Dhar’s Hindi feature Dhurandhar and Leena Yadav’s Ladakhi-language non-feature Becoming. The pairing brings different languages and forms to the opening of the same showcase. It also suggests a useful way to approach the section: look beyond the most familiar title to discover what sits beside it.

The announced Indian Panorama selection comprises 25 feature films and 20 non-feature films, within the larger Indian Cinema programme. The feature selection drew on 404 submissions and the non-feature selection on 358, with Madhur Bhandarkar and Himanshu Shekhar Khatua chairing the respective juries.  These are the core selections, not a description of every Indian film screening elsewhere at IFFI.

The feature selection makes the linguistic range tangible. It includes Duyu Tabyo’s Nyishi-language Urum, Anupama Sharadhi’s Tulu-language Pili Channe, Sahil Shah’s Ladakhi-language Birds on Ice and Antara G.G. Choudhury’s Assamese-language Surjyamukhi. Their presence gives audiences a route into Indian cinema that is more specific than a general celebration of diversity.

It also includes P. Sheshadri’s Kannada-language Ruby-Cube, Kannan S’s Tamil-language Scroll and Akhil Sathyan’s Malayalam-language Sarvam Maya. Seen as a viewing proposition, such a selection encourages audiences to move between filmmaking cultures rather than treating language as a reason to remain within one. The important question is not which language needs to become more like another, but what each film can bring to a shared conversation.

Familiar titles can help draw attention to that wider field. The selection places Dhurandhar alongside Rishab Shetty’s Kantara A Legend Chapter 1 and Anil Ravipudi’s Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu (Pandaga Ki Vastunnaru). A showcase can accommodate recognisable films without allowing recognition alone to define its identity. For programmers and viewers alike, the less familiar selections offer a reason to look further.

The non-feature programme deserves equivalent attention, not treatment as an appendix to the feature line-up. Beyond Becoming, it includes Aimee Baruah’s Assamese-language Red Carpet, Baba Tassaduq Hussain’s Kashmiri-language Naqsh-e-Daur, Sandeep Francis’s Malayalam-language Switch Off and Dhritisree Sarkar’s Bengali-language Kathar Katha. These selections should be approached on their own terms; the non-feature label is not, by itself, a description of genre or subject.

Indian Panorama also has a stated life beyond its Goa screenings. Its regulations provide for selected films to participate in international festivals, film weeks and other non-commercial screenings in India and abroad.  That creates a cultural-circulation role for the selection, while remaining distinct from a theatrical release, a streaming acquisition or an international sales agreement.

For an international delegate, the section can serve as a starting point for asking more precise questions about Indian cinema. Which languages and filmmaking communities are represented? Which forms are being explored? Which films challenge an existing idea of what an Indian production looks or sounds like? Those questions are more productive than expecting one showcase to produce a single national style.