Kirti Kulhari is adding a new credit to a career that already spans more than a decade: producer. Her first feature under Kintsukuroi Films, Kinaare, will premiere at the upcoming Dharamshala International Film Festival, unveiling a project she has described as the kind of cinema she has long admired.
A family story, told small
Written and directed by Akbar and Azam Qadri, Kinaare casts Kulhari as Amina, a single woman in a village near Delhi. Her days are built around caring for ageing parents and keeping her home; that routine is interrupted when a cousin arrives after a 15-year absence, reopening a past fracture in the family. The visit becomes a way to recover lost years and make a form of peace with the present.
The ensemble includes Rajeev Siddhartha, Alka Amin and Ravi Taneja. Kulhari co-produces with Abhishek Koka and Maansi Guptey.
Why the premiere matters
For a first-time producer, choosing DIFF over a direct commercial announcement is a signal. Festival slots give a small film its first audience of critics and programmers, and often open the door to distribution conversations. The route suits a restrained film that Kulhari described as “simple, heartwarming, and subtle,” qualities she associates with the Iranian cinema she has long loved.
Kulhari has built a reputation as an actor, but producing is a different discipline: it means protecting the edit, the budget and the festival window. Kinaare’s first test at DIFF will be as much about her instincts as a producer as about the film itself.
Kulhari called the film her “first child as a producer” and said she wanted to make it independently, “the way I see it, the way we all see it collectively.” The production, she added, came together because people believed in the script rather than the scale.
What the collaborators say
Siddhartha said the script gave him room to explore “the spaces between the words” rather than leaning only on dialogue. The craft team includes cinematographer Arjun Sundaram, composer Mohan Kannan, editor Bakul Matiyani and sound designer Sanjay Chaturvedi.
- The project: Kulhari’s first feature as producer, under Kintsukuroi Films.
- The platform: Dharamshala International Film Festival, not a mainstream release event.
- The register: A small family drama with a deliberately quiet, Iranian-influenced tone.
What to watch for
Kinaare’s festival reception will matter less for opening-weekend numbers than for what follows: whether it secures a distributor, travels to further festivals, and whether Kulhari returns as a producer. The film does not yet have a theatrical or streaming date, but DIFF will offer the first concrete read on how audiences respond to this quieter lane of Hindi cinema.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
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