Songs of
Forgotten Trees
Anurag Kashyap presents
A Flip Films, River Tale Films, Romil Casting & Nube Studio production
A Film by Anuparna Roy
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Official Selection – Venice Film Festival 2025
Tech Specs
Duration: 80 Mins
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
35mm
Color
Sound: 5.1
Synopsis
In the restless sprawl of Mumbai, Thooya- a migrant and aspiring actress, navigates the city through beauty, wit, and uneasy compromises.
When she sublets her sugar daddy’s sleek apartment to Swetha, a corporate professional new to the city, two seemingly different lives begin to overlap.
As the women share space, silence, and the weight of their private struggles, a quiet, unexpected empathy begins to grow.
But the city doesn’t rest, and neither do the wounds they carry.
As their individual pasts and longings come to the surface, what emerges is not conflict, but a fragile unfolding—a story of womanhood, survival, and a kinship that defies definition.
About The Director
Anuparna Roy (b. 1994, May 9) is an emerging filmmaker and writer from Narayanpur, a village in Purulia, West Bengal. A graduate in British English Literature from Kulti College, under Burdwan University, she began her journey in cinema working as an assistant director on several short films, including one produced by NFDC India.
Her directorial debut short film Run to the River has been officially selected at numerous national and international film festivals, including the 17th Cheboksary International Film Festival, Gange Sur Seine, 21st Stuttgart Indian Film Festival, 25th Rainbow International Film Festival (Winner), 29th Portobello International Film Festival, New Wave Short Film Festival Kerala, 4th Bogura International Film Festival (Bangladesh), and Moviepedia at IIM Rohtak. The film also won Best Short Film at Sthree Film Festival, Chennai, and was screened by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan in Mumbai.
It has received critical acclaim from leading Indian reviewers and regional media. Beyond cinema, Anuparna is also a published writer. Her article addressing the rights of minorities, the aftermath of NRC, and the lives of Bay of Bengal refugees was featured in WION. In 2024, she completed her debut feature film, Songs of Forgotten Trees, a deeply personal project that she self-funded while juggling three corporate jobs in Mumbai. Now based in Mumbai, she is actively developing new scripts. Her current work explores themes rooted in Third World cinema, female agency, and marginalized narratives.
Director's Note
I was born in Narayanpur, a remote village in Purulia, far from the cultural and linguistic elite of urban Bengal. The world I came from – its language, its women, its stories – was shaped by caste, class, and gender-based neglect, and silenced by systemic indifference. My debut feature, Song of Forgotten Trees, is rooted in that silence.
Set in Mumbai, the film follows two migrant women, one a part-time sex worker, the other a corporate employee, whose unexpected living arrangement unfolds into a quiet, unspoken intimacy. Their bond is not dramatic or loud, but tender, political, and deeply personal.
Like me, they navigate spaces not made for them – where survival is labor, and desire often remains unspoken.
This film echoes the memory of my lost friend, Jhuma Nath, a Dalit girl married off at thirteen, a life stolen under the guise of state policy. It reflects how memory, desire, and gendered violence intersect in lives like ours – where girlhood is burdened, bodies are managed, and voices are denied.
In a country where women are erased, objectified, or softened through a male gaze, Song of Forgotten Trees resists. It doesn’t seek to romanticize the nation or its systems, it seeks to remember, to reclaim, and to give space to women simply as they are. Not as metaphors, not as vessels, but as real, complex people surviving and desiring in a world that refuses to see them.
Presented by
ANURAG KASHYAP
The most influential Indian filmmaker of recent times with a superlative career including more than 50 films as a Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Editor and Actor. He was awarded the ‘Knight of the order of Arts and Letter’ by the French government, in 2013, when India was the guest country at Cannes Film Festival, to commemorate 100 years of Indian Cinema. His work continues to be acclaimed globally starting with the Grand Jury Prize for Black Friday at IFFLA 2005, and a nominations at Locarno Film Festival that year. 3 of his next 5 films had Director’s Fortnight Premieres, at Cannes, including Gangs of Wasseypur, Ugly & Raman Raghav 2.0., a BAFTA Nomination for his produced film The Lunchbox, and a host of Indian film awards, including Filmfare, Screen and Guild Awards. He is the face of Indian Cinema at various prestigious film festivals across the globe and has served as a jury on various prestigious film festivals as Sundance, Marrakesh & Busan. As a producer, he has launched some young Directors with a unique voice as Vasan Bala, Ritesh Batra, Neeraj Ghaywan etc. whose films Peddlers, The Lunchbox & Masaan viz. have premiered
at Cannes.
He has also produced various acclaimed and successful films like Udaan, Queen, Udta Punjab, Haraamkhor, Trapped etc. He is also one of the Directors of Netflix's first India show called
Sacred Games, and also various films like Choked, and short films for the anthologies - Lust Stories & Ghost Stories, for them. He was voted as one of the top 50 influential Indians by India Today, a leading Indian current affairs magazine, and continues to bring change t o the Indian Film Industry. His recent film Kennedy had its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival and his next release is Nishaanchi, releasing in September 2025.
Produced by
RANJAN SINGH
Ranjan Singh, is a producer, marketer and distributor of films with an experience of over 22+ years. He has produced content and handled Marketing & PR for leading Entertainment brands like Phantom Films, Good Bad Films, PVR Pictures, INOX and OTT platforms like myNK and Viu. In his last stint at Good Bad Films, he produced films like Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, which premiered at Marrakesh Film Festival 2022 and Kennedy (both Directed by Anurag Kashyap) which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2023.
In his stint as the Marketing head and Associate producer at Phantom Films, he has worked on films like Lootera, Queen, Masaan, NH10, Ugly, Bombay Velvet, Udta Punjab, Raman Raghav 2.0, Hunterrr, Trapped etc. Ranjan has been an independent distributor of acclaimed documentaries like Supermen of Malegaon, Leaving Home : The Life and Music of Indian Ocean, and Katiyabaaz, and independent films like Chintu ka Birthday, Eeb Allay Ooo, Kastoori etc.
In the interim he founded VDOVIDEO, a specialist agency for creating Marketing units, for films and web shows. Some of their key Marketing campaigns for films and shows including Visual promotions for Danis Tanovic’s TIGERS, Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz and Geetu Mohandas’ Moothon. In one of his stints, he was also the Content consultant for CreativeFirst, a website run by the Motion Pictures Association of America.
BIBHANSHU RAI
Bibhanshu Rai is a director and producer known for championing bold, independent voices in cinema. He produced Run to the River, which made waves at top festivals like Stuttgart.
His own directorial ventures, Chaukhat & Wait have screened at MIFF and BISFF, earning critical praise. With a sharp eye for raw, rooted stories and a flair for visual storytelling,
Bibhanshu continues to push boundaries and back films that dare to speak up.
ROMIL MODI
Romil began his casting journey with TV Commercials. In 2013, he began casting for films, starting with Issaq, Indian Romeo- Juliet, set in Banaras.
Then came Budhia Singh which got a national award in best children’s film category. His casting in Cannes Grand Prix winner* All we imagine as light, Oscar nominated Anuja (short), Newton, Sherni, and Laapata Ladies by Kiran Rao has proved to be a benchmark by critics.
Despite his successful run in casting, Romil's unwavering interest in film-making, led him to take his first step as a Producer/Director in his short film, LAAR, which is streaming now in jiocinemas.
Co Produced By
NAVIN SHETTY
Navin Shetty is a renowned colorist and the visionary founder of Nube Studio, a comprehensive post-production facility specializing in color grading, VFX, and finishing for advertising, feature films, and web shows. He also serves as a dedicated producer at Fundamental Pictures.
Nube Studio has become a go-to destination for filmmakers seeking top-tier post-production services. Shetty's impressive production credits include "Zoo" (noted as India's first iPhone film), the critically acclaimed "Cargo" (praised at SXSW), "Two Sisters and a Husband" (which premiered at Tribeca and Calgary), and "Privacy" (directed by Sudeep Kanwal, premiering at the Bucheon Fantastic Film Festival).
His extensive experience in both film production and post-production underscores his multifaceted expertise in the industry.
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Director - Anuparna Roy
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Story, Screenplay - Anuparna Roy
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Film Presented By - Anurag Kashyap
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Producer - Bibhanshu Rai
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Producer - Romil Modi
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Producer - Ranjan Singh
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Co-Producer - Navin Shetty
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Executive Producer - Romil Modi
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Executive Producer - Shivam Gupta
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Creative Producer- Nikhil Lama
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Director of Photography - Debjit Samanta & Sakyadeb Chowdhury
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Production Design - Priya Shree
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Casting By - Ram Rawat, Vasu Soni and Shubham Gupta
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Editor - Ashish Patel
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Colorist - Navin Shetty
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Music - Nishant Ramtake
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Costume Designer- Sachin Lovalekar
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Sound Designer - Arka Dey
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Re- Recording Mixer - Alok De
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Foley Studio- Just Foley Art
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Location Sound- Pranjal
Cast & Crew
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Naaz Shaikh
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Sumi Baghel
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Bhushan Shimpi
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Ravi Maan
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Lovely Singh
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