Sundance winner Neeraj Churi boards Bengali queer drama for Busan premiere
Neeraj Churi has boarded About an Intimate Matter (Ekanto Byaktigoto Bishoy) as a producer ahead of its world premiere at the 31st Busan International Film Festival, Variety reported on 7 October 2026. Variety
A world premiere means the first public screening of a finished film. Busan hosts that first screening.
The film is a Bengali-language queer drama from Awedacious Originals. It is the company's first Bengali-language production. It was written and directed by Sandeep Kumar Paul, a first-time feature filmmaker.
It will screen in A Window on Asian Cinema, a programme strand at Busan devoted to recent films from across the region. The slot puts a debut feature in front of festival audiences, buyers and press.
It stars Sreya Bhattacharya, Shimlli Basu and Sanjita Das. The story centres on Swarna, a high school science teacher whose private photographs are leaked by a student. Swarna has returned to Kolkata to teach at a secondary school after graduating from university in Delhi, according to the festival listing. Busan International Film Festival
The producing team brings together old and new collaborators. Awedacious Originals was co-founded by Apoorva Bakshi and Monisha Thyagarajan. Bakshi is the International Emmy-winning producer of Delhi Crime.
Bakshi and Thyagarajan produce alongside Neeraj Churi and Abid Aziz Merchant of Lotus Visual Productions. Jenisha Dave serves as associate producer. Churi is affiliated with Lotus Visual Productions.
Churi arrives with recent festival form. He produced Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears), directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade. That film won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the top jury award for an international drama at Sundance.
What makes this stand out is the balance around the camera. A first-time director leads the creative work. He is backed by producers with international awards and festival wins behind them.
