Arundhati Roy on Beatles, AI and Indie Filmmaking at London Indian Film Festival
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- Arundhati Roy appeared at BFI Southbank on July 15 for a Q&A following the U.K. premiere of a 4K restoration of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, the film she co-wrote and starred in during the 1980s
- Roy revealed she and director Pradip Krishen wrote to the Beatles asking to use their music but never received a reply, with the songs ultimately featuring in the film without formal clearance
- Roy drew a sharp contrast between the film's handmade, no-budget production and modern cinema, saying audiences prefer "people who fumble and stumble and fail and are fucked up" over "beautiful AI-generated characters on Ozempic"
- The film was shot on essentially no budget with hand-lettered credits and sketches Roy drew herself, featuring an early Shah Rukh Khan cameo alongside Roshan Seth, Arjun Raina, and Rituraj
- Film Heritage Foundation carried out the 4K restoration with Krishen's involvement and lab partner L'Immagine Ritrovata, drawing on a 16mm negative from the National Film Archive of India and a 35mm print from FHF's own collection
- The appearance came several months after Roy withdrew from the Berlin Film Festival earlier in the year over its refusal to comment on Gaza, with the screening forming part of the 17th London Indian Film Festival
Why it matters: Roy, the Booker Prize-winning author of *The God of Small Things*, used the restored film's London premiere to stake out a position in the AI-in-cinema debate while championing handmade indie filmmaking. The Film Heritage Foundation restoration, built from a surviving 16mm negative and 35mm print, makes a tangible piece of Indian independent cinema — featuring an early Shah Rukh Khan cameo — available to new audiences.
