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Sundance-winning producer Neeraj Churi has boarded “About an Intimate Matter” (Ekanto Byaktigoto Bishoy), a Bengali-language queer drama from Awedacious Originals that will world premiere at the 31st Busan International
Film Festival.
Churi, of Lotus Visual Productions, produced Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s “Sabar Bonda” (Cactus Pears), winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
“About an Intimate Matter,” a psychological drama about a schoolteacher whose private photographs are leaked by a student, is the first Bengali-language production for Awedacious Originals. Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Sandeep Kumar Paul, the film is in the festival’s A Window on Asian Cinema section. Sreya Bhattacharya, Shimlli Basu and Sanjita Das lead the cast.
The story centers on Swarna, a high school science teacher, and her partner Driti, who relocate to a quiet suburban town to start over. Their plans fall apart when one of Swarna’s students finds intimate images of her online and passes them around his class. The gossip hardens into something more official, as fellow teachers and school authorities start to treat her personal life as a disciplinary matter. With her job and her relationship both under strain, Swarna has to decide how far she will go to take back control of her own life.
“Having ‘About an Intimate Matter’ start its festival journey at Busan is deeply meaningful to me,” Paul said. “The film grew from years of listening, observing and trying to understand how profession, class and social expectation enter our most private relationships. I did not want to look at queer lives from the outside or treat them as exceptional. I wanted Swarna and Driti to have the same contradictions, desires, vulnerabilities and dignity as anyone else.”
The project has its roots in Paul’s photography. In 2016 and 2017 he shot Pride walks and other gatherings in Kolkata, but came to feel that still images couldn’t carry the emotional weight of the lives he was documenting. A close friend’s struggle to square his identity with the expectations of those around him made the story more personal. Paul wrote the screenplay in close collaboration with queer friends, whose experiences shaped the characters and dialogue.
The film’s look tracks Swarna’s state of mind. In its early stretches, Paul deliberately keeps the sky out of the frame, letting it creep back in as she finds her footing. He shot in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio to press in on her, and set the story in winter, when bodies stay covered and movement is restricted.
Apoorva Bakshi, the International Emmy-winning producer of “Delhi Crime” who co-founded Awedacious Originals with Monisha Thyagarajan, said the company had been drawn to Paul’s voice and the understated way he handles identity, intimacy and social prejudice. “There is a remarkable restraint to the film; it never announces its politics, but allows them to emerge through its characters, their relationships and the world they inhabit,” Bakshi said. “We’re incredibly proud that ‘About an Intimate Matter,’ our first Bengali-language production, will begin its journey at Busan, and we could not imagine a more meaningful home for its world premiere.”
Bakshi and Thyagarajan produce alongside Churi and Abid Aziz Merchant of Lotus Visual Productions, with producing partners spread across India, the U.K. and the U.S. Jenisha Dave is associate producer. Churi, a queer cisgender man, also contributed his perspective during development and production.
“Swarna’s circumstances are specific, but the desire to live and love without being made answerable to public judgment is universal,” Churi said. “Busan gives us the opportunity to carry her story beyond its geographical setting and into a larger international conversation.”
Raised in Kolkata, Paul trained in engineering and business before starting out in Bengali theater, later moving into illustration and street and documentary photography.
Awedacious Originals, which has offices in California and India, produced documentary series “The Hunt for Veerappan” for Netflix and documentary feature “Womb” for Prime Video, as well as hand-drawn animated feature “The Glassworker,” which premiered at Annecy in 2024. The company’s festival slate also includes “Madina,” a co-production with Kazakhstan that premiered in Tokyo, and short “Aman,” a trans pregnancy drama that was a finalist in the Short Cuts competition at Toronto this year and is set for its European premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.
