Exclusive | Anuparna Roy Returns to Venice With Second Feature ‘Lovers in the Blue Night’ in Orizzonti: ‘Humbling and Deeply Emotional’
Issued: 23/Jul/2026, The Hollywood Reporter. New Delhi, India.
A year after making history as the first Indian filmmaker to win the Best Director Award in the Orizzonti section at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival for her debut feature Songs of Forgotten Trees, filmmaker Anuparna Roy is returning to the Lido with her second feature, Lovers in the Blue Night.
Selected for the Orizzonti Competition at the upcoming 83rd edition, Roy becomes one of the very few Indian filmmakers to have two consecutive features premiere in competition at Venice, which marks a major milestone for independent Indian cinema.
Set against Mumbai’s restless nights, Lovers In The Blue Night follows four migrants—a closeted husband, his lonely wife who works in a bar, a small-time thief and a pimp—whose lives intersect through unexpected love, survival and forbidden desire.
Told in Hindi with Sylheti, Bengali and Marathi, the film explores longing, migration, identity and the search for belonging in a city that leaves little room for vulnerability. The film features an ensemble cast including Neelima Sharma, Pritam Pilania, Bhushan Shimpi, Jatin Sarin, Kajal Keshav, and Vinod Suryavanshi.