France’s Haiku Films & Norway’s Rein Film Board Indian Indie Drama ‘Kabootar’

EXCLUSIVE: Indian indie drama Kabootar, the debut feature of award-winning short filmmaker Ishan Sharma, has secured co-production partners in Norway and France. 

Paris-based Haiku Films and Oslo-based Rein Film confirmed in Cannes that they’ve joined India’s MDC Filmworks to produce the project. India’s Rohit Saxena, a New Delhi-based private equity professional and first-time film producer, has also boarded the film. 

The project has also locked key creatives including cinematographer Udit Khurana, whose credits include Bayaan, which screened at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and casting director Dilip Shankar, who worked on Life Of Pi and A Suitable Boy. 

Described as a detective drama, the film is set amid the ruins of Old Delhi where people attempt to solve their problems by writing letters to a Djinn. A street detective secretly reads these letters in the hope of turning these people into prospective clients.

Rising French production company Haiku Films, founded by La Femis graduates Thomas Jaeger, Antoine Delahousse and Claire Trinquet, has credits including Fifi, directed by Jeanne Aslan and Paul Saintillan, which won the Grand Prize at San Sebastian in 2022. The company also co-produced two films directed by Julia von Heinz: And Tomorrow The Entire World, which screened at Venice, and Treasure, which played in Berlin. 

Rein Film, founded by Mathis Ståle Mathisen and Aleksander Olai Korsnes, is one of Norway’s leading production companies with a strong track record in international co-productions and Arctic filmmaking. Recent releases include Egil Pedersen’s My Fathers’ Daughter, which screened at Toronto in 2024, Ciao Ráhkkis and Ski. 

MDC Filmworks, founded by Nikhil Chaudhary, has previously produced five films including Sanjoy Nag’s Yours Truly, which premiered at Busan International Film Festival; Rajat Kapoor’s dark comedy Kadakh, which premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where it won Best Screenplay; and Odia-language film Bindusagar, which recently completed an Indian theatrical run. 

Sharma, a graduate of India’s Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, has previously directed award-winning shorts including The God Of Panic Street and A Season Of Mangoes.  

“Through Kabootar and its cast of characters, I want Delhi to confront its own amnesia – to remember those whose homes and histories it has struck down and struck out,” said Sharma. “This is not a film about faith. It is about what remains when institutions fail, about belief as an act of survival, and memory as a form of resistance.” 

Kabootar was developed through the Production & Storytelling Workshop, formerly known as the Produire au Sud Workshop, at Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, France. It has also been selected for project markets including the Tasveer Film Market in Seattle; Film Bazaar, organised by India’s National Film Development Corp (NFDC) in Goa; and the NFDC line-up of projects at this year’s European Film Market in Berlin. 

MDC Filmworks founder Chaudhary said: “I am delighted to be associated with Haiku Films and Rein Film. I have known Ishan for over ten years, and I have always been struck by the honesty and authenticity he brings to his work. This marks MDC Filmworks’ first international co-production and is a testament to our belief that authentic Indian stories have the power to travel across borders.” 

Haiku Films stated: “We are delighted to co-produce this ambitious debut feature alongside MDC Filmworks, a film that is both entertaining and deeply moving. We are equally convinced by the talent of Ishan Sharma and by the film’s strong potential with French audiences. We also believe the film has the ability to resonate with audiences around the world, as its story powerfully combines a distinct Indian identity with a deeply universal theme, reminiscent, among others, of The Kid by Charlie Chaplin.” 

Rein Film said: “Kabootar resonates deeply with us. When we met Nikhil and Ishan at the EFM, there was no doubt this was a film worth fighting for.”

Principal photography on Kabootar is scheduled to start early next year.