Moving, funny, ridiculous, nostalgic – these were reactions from 1970s college-goers at a recent screening of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989), a campus film starring Arundhati Roy and featuring a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan. For many in the audience, the film revived memories of college days.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, who restored the film, described the screenings as a reminder of cinema’s magic. “It is the magic of cinema that we witnessed at the Delhi and Mumbai screenings. The audience in India reacted in the same manner as audiences in Germany did when the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival recently. I somehow knew that the film would work even after 38 years,” he shared.

When first made, the film’s characters were unlike anything on Indian screens – westernised, elite, English-speaking students portrayed with eccentricity and idealism, unlike the conventional characters that dominated Indian cinema at the time. Directed by Pradip Krishen and written by Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, the film follows eccentric architecture students in a 1974 Delhi college through their final year.

Roy spoke about the strange experience of revisiting a film she made nearly four decades ago and said, “It takes a lot of courage to sit in a hall and watch yourself when you are 38 years younger. I certainly had nothing to do with the restoration. Even archiving – I’m terrible at it. I just throw things away.” 

Looking back at the screenplay, Roy added with candour, “When I looked at it recently, I thought, ‘What was I thinking?’ All I can say about this film is that it’s a celebration of utter ridiculousness. Maybe at a time like this, that’s all we have to celebrate.”

She spoke about how the film captures a different kind of youth culture. “Someone asked me what Gen Z would make of it. I don’t understand all these terminologies – Gen Z, X, Y. But when I look back, I see a group of young people who were radically different from each other. They forgive each other and celebrated each other’s eccentricities.”

Roy had initially planned to attend the screening at Berlinale but later withdrew screening at Berlinale but later withdrew when festival jury president Wim Wenders when festival jury president Wim Wenders made the statement, “We have to stay out made the statement, “We have to stay out of politics.” of politics.”

Arjun Raina, who played Annie, seeing the restored film decades later was unexpectedly emotional. He shared, “What I found very healing is that we suddenly have a heritage through this film.”

Reflecting on the spirit of the time, he offered a metaphor, “We were like creatures in a jungle – someone was a squirrel, someone was a deer – all these delightful beings living together. Then came the ’90s. The forest was cut, the wood became furniture, and our lives changed.”

Pradip Krishen shared that over the past 38 years, ten members of the cast and crew have passed away. He recalled a humorous moment from the shoot and said, “When we were filming on the street and people asked what the film was called, we shortened it to ‘Those Ones’. If someone asked, ‘Kaun si film ki shooting ho rahi hai ?’we’d say, ‘Those Ones Those Ones’ Later we overheard someone answering the same question answering the same question and saying, Do Jawan Do Jawan’”

Some will watch In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989), which made it to theatres on March 13, to see author Arundhati Roy’s brush with acting. Others, to see Shah Rukh Khan in his pre-stardom era, as he appears in a brief role in Pradip Krishen’s directorial feature. While making the film in the late ’80s, had Krishen anticipated that Khan would go on to become a superstar?

“I didn’t expect Shah Rukh Khan to become as big a star as he did. When you have a bunch of young students working with you, you don’t quite imagine that one of them will become a megastar. I’m happy for him,” shared Krishen.

He added that Khan was “unhappy” about not getting a meaty role in the movie. “After he became a star, he said some unkind things about us. He said, ‘Those guys never recognized what a good actor I am.’ I guess that’s true. But he belongs to a genre of acting that didn’t suit the parts we were looking for.”

Last month, the movie was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. Lead actor and writer Roy dropped out of the gala, criticizing festival jury president Wim Wenders’s statement that filmmakers should stay out of politics. We asked Krishen if he too considered withdrawing from the gala. “I was already in Doha when I learnt that Arundhati wasn’t coming. It was too late for me to bail out. I admire her courage to stand for her principles. The audience clapped when I said she had made this decision on principle.”

Indian classic films are finding renewed life on the global stage, with restored versions travelling to major festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and now the Berlin International Film Festival. Organizers said the screening of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989) played to a packed house. The audience extended beyond cinephiles, with several attendees saying they came because they follow Arundhati’s work. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur noted that representatives from Criterion, Berlin Classics, and MoMA were present to discuss the renewed momentum behind Indian film restoration.

​The film has been making headlines over the past few days after its writer and lead actor, Arundhati Roy decided to withdraw from the Berlinale after the film festival’s international jury president, Wim Wenders, said that filmmakers must stay out of politics. Announcing her withdrawal, Arundhati described the remarks as unconscionable.

However, Wim Wenders joined the Indian team at the Berlin Film Festival for the film’s screening. Before it began, director Pradip Krishen – who is also Arundhati Roy’s husband – addressed the audience.

He said, “I know she has a very special place for Berlin in her heart. Based on the two book tours I accompanied her on in Berlin, I believe Berlin loves her as well. But she has strong principles and strong beliefs, and I stand with her.”

​As part of the festival’s focus on film heritage and preservation, a masterclass on Indian film heritage was organized in conversation with Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, moderated by Josh Siegel. Dungarpur began by reflecting on the limited awareness of film preservation in India. Recalling his early efforts to restore Kalpana, a 1940s film by Uday Shankar, he described his shock at the condition of the reels.

“At the time, people in India barely understood what film preservation meant. Despite producing over a thousand films a year, we were losing our cinematic heritage. That realization led me to document what was being lost, which eventually became a film itself, and later to founding a preservation initiative. It was Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan’s idea that I should establish a foundation to preserve our heritage.”

“The film was initially called Chapter 5 because it was about fifth-year students in that architecture school (as shown in the film). But we felt it was too generic a title. We wanted something that people in their 60s and 70s would relate to – and that’s why we chose the title we did. The film was screened on Doordarshan after 10.40 pm without any advance notice. It was almost as if the channel was ashamed to show it. After that, the film developed an underground following. It only lived on as a pirated, low-grade version on YouTube. It became a rite of passage for architecture students,” said director Pradip Krishen.

Josh Siegel placed the discussion in a broader institutional context. “MoMA has a long history of presenting Indian cinema dating back to the 1930s, particularly from the 1950s. I cannot overestimate the contribution you have made,” he said.

Dungarpur explained that the foundation chose to work across regions and languages. “We began restoring films across languages and regions – Malayalam, Odia, Manipuri, and others and also extended our work beyond India, collaborating on archival efforts in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. The focus has always been grassroots: training people, building smaller regional archives, and working directly on the ground.”

He's undoubtedly one of Bollywood's best actors. Comedies, tear-jerkers, negative roles - there's little Paresh Rawal hasn't done in his career spanning three-and-a-half decades. And to say that he has performed each role with aplomb is, as the cliché goes, an understatement. While he's a delight to watch on screen, off it, he's known for his brutal honesty.

Clearly, the actor-politician doesn't believe in being politically correct. As he says during the course of the interview, “If I'm not aware of something, I won't comment. Main gol gol jawab nahin doonga.“ Rawal recently courted controversy when his comments on writer-activist Arundhati Roy sparked a national debate. We caught up with him in the midst of promotions for his upcoming entertainer, Guest Iin London, which releases this Friday. Excerpts...

It has been two years since your last release, Welcome Back. Have you become extra choosy?
Not extra choosy per se, but kuchh dhang ki script toh ho yaar. Kabhi mil jaati hai... I have a good line-up now. Rajkumar Hirani's biopic on Sanjay Dutt, Tiger Zinda Hai, Ananth Mahadevan's film based on Satyajit Ray ... I'm happy with the movies I'm working on. Like my next film, Guest Iin London, is a family entertainer in which I have a good role. The fact that it has people I love working with was an added temptation. After so many years, you become confident that you have some control over your craft. So, I look for roles that can challenge that confidence. Money is not the criteria. In fact, I'm doing a couple of limited-budget movies; the biggest joy is to be associated with good cinema.

This time around, you play an unannounced guest in the house of a young couple (played by Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Kharbanda) in London...
In Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge (2010) too, Ajay Devgn and Konkona Sen Sharma were younger than me. I love working with younger actors. Today's generation is focused and career-oriented. They are not greedy to sign 10 films. They are selective and don't mind waiting to do good work.

Talking about the younger generation, are your sons planning careers in movies?
My younger son Aditya is into screenplay writing. He has completed his graduation from New York University . My elder son Aniruddh is an assistant director. I will support and encourage them the way my parents supported me, but if they expect me to launch them, that won't happen. They should make it on their own.

On a lighter note, your character in Guest Iin London is that of an unannounced guest. How do you treat such visitors in real life?
Honestly, I hate anyone except friends coming unannounced to my home. I never pay surprise visits to people. In fact, even when I call up someone, I ask if they are free to talk. Yeh toh ghar par jaane ki baat hai! So, if someone drops in suddenly, I tell them that I'm stepping out. I'm blunt that way. Kyun faaltu ka jhelna!

As a guest, do your hosts go out of their way to please you, keeping in mind your celebrity status?
I don't like being given extra attention. If I am coming over for lunch or dinner, cook whatever you would have prepared for yourself. Don't show me your culinary skills. Main milne jaata hoon, khaana khaane nahin. Milne ka mazaa aana chahiye. If you get good food, then you're busy eating and don't get time to talk. Uss mein mazaa nahin hai.

Coming back to movies, does being a Member of Parliament (he is a Lok Sabha member from Ahmedabad East) influence your choice of roles?
Not at all. My films have nothing to do with politics or political ideologies. My work as an actor is different from my work as an MP. I don't mix the two.

Be it the content or the way of functioning, Hindi cinema has undergone drastic changes over the years. Have you ever had difficulty adapting to them?
No, this is the golden era of cinema. There are talented actors, and writers and directors with fresh ideas. Work ethics have also changed. Financial dealings are structured and every actor gets a bound script. It's all very professional now and it's a joy to work in this atmosphere.

Do you mean that you miss nothing about the previous decades?
Earlier, we used to shoot on raw stock and producers would be worried about unnecessary retakes. Now everything is digital, so shots are taken from all angles. Direction kum aur coverage zyada ho gaya hai. Kabhi kabhi thodi boriyat ho jaati hai. What happens is that certain key scenes lose their purity and emotional intensity after three-four takes. From that aspect, I miss the raw stock days. However, the scenario has improved overall.

Nowadays, marketing and promotion play an important role in generating buzz around a film's release. Compared to yesteryears, do you find it all a tad too aggressive?
It is necessary to promote films, irrespective of whether I like it or not, but how innovative we are and how we capitalise on the available avenues depends on us. For example, I am okay with interviews, but if you ask me to visit malls to promote a film, I won't do that. That's foolishness; the crowd in malls doesn't translate into ticket sales. I won't take names, but there was this actor who promoted his movie at a mall packed with people who had gathered to catch a glimpse of him; but despite all that, his film sold only 83 tickets. See, stars will do whatever they are asked to, but it's better to utilise that money on advertising spots.

You are known for not mincing words. As an MP of the ruling coalition, what is your take on the government's stance on various industry-related issues, including the censorship controversy?
Shyam Benegal sahab has given his views; let's see when they will get implemented. It will take time, as the government cannot change its decisions frequently. Some people insist on removing Pahlaj Nihalani (the Censor Board chief). Where is the guarantee that there will be no issues when someone else is appointed in his place?

Gajendra Chauhan's appointment as the head of FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) was also controversial. Students strongly opposed it and even went on strike...
I agree that Gajendra Chauhan's body of work is not up to your expectations, but every actor has done bad films. That is not a yardstick to measure his managerial abilities. You first listen to him and his plans before accepting or rejecting him. You talk about democracy, toh democratically usko suno toh sahi.

When it comes to controversies, your tweet that writer-activist Arundhati Roy should have been tied to the jeep to avoid stone-pelters in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) evoked a lot of criticism, and raged a debate on social media. Reportedly, Twitter wanted you to delete the post, too...
Well, they asked me to delete it, but I didn't. My first attack was on her lies. Usne jo anaap-shanap baka tha, uska proof post kiya tha maine. I'm not apologetic about Arundhati Roy at all. She has no right to abuse the army.

But your tweet was seen as inciting violence towards a woman...
Like I explained, if she had been tied to the jeep, no one would have pelted stones. She is their wellwisher. Maine to shaanti ka kabutar chhoda hai. Arundhati knows the condition in which the army works. Jo 'Bharat tere tukde honge' ka sloganeering karte hain, woh violence failate hain.

You were planning a biopic on our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Is it still on?
I'm yet to nail the script. It's not easy to write a script for a biopic on Narendra Modi. Where do you put the full stop? Generally, biopics are made on those who are on the shelf, yeh toh ongoing hai.