Nandita Das' Zwigato Starring Kapil Sharma will Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2022

Actor-director Nandita Das, who has gained wide acclaim for her directorial outings with Firaaq (2008) and Manto (2018), is gearing up for the release of her upcoming venture. Titled Zwigato, it stars comedian Kapil Sharma in the lead, and marks their first collaboration. The film produced by Sameer Nair’s Applause Entertainment and Das’ Nandita Das Initiatives and co-starring Shahana Goswami is all set to make its world premiere at the prestigious 47th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2022. An official selection, the film will be screened under the ‘Contemporary World Cinema’ section.

Written and directed by Das, Zwigato sees Sharma as a new food delivery rider, exploring the world of gig economy. Goswami plays his wife, a homemaker, who to support his income, starts to work for the very first time. Set in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, the film captures what an ordinary family faces in the post-pandemic world. It is a bitter-sweet story of relentless struggle of life, but not without shared moments of joy.

Happy that the film will be screened at TIFF for the world audience to see, Das shares, “Zwigato is finally ready! It is a story about new urban India that is not just about the gig economy, but also about everything that we normalise around us. I found the perfect producing partner in Sameer Nair to tell this simple yet complex slice-of-life film. I am thrilled that it will premiere soon at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)."

What also makes this feat special for her is the fact that her debut film as a lead, Fire (1996) co-starring Shabana Azmi was also screened at the festival. “This means a lot to me personally as I have debuted there both as an actor and director, with Fire (1996) and Firaaq, respectively. Over the years, several other films have taken me to TIFF. I hope the universality of the theme of the film will resonate with the amazing audiences that the festival attracts from all over the world," she states.

Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment is elated as the film though based in small-town India will be able to transcend borders and get the chance of resonating with audiences in the West. “Zwigato depicts the lives of the often unseen people who are the heart and soul of this nation and its economy. Whilst the film is set in urban India, we believe that the themes of this film transcend geographical boundaries and will resonate with the global audience. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with Nandita, and we are delighted that Zwigato will have its world premiere at the prestigious TIFF," he adds.

The trailer of Zwigato, which was recently unveiled, sees Sharma shedding his image of a comic and displaying his chops as a serious actor. It also reveals the dynamic between a husband and a wife as they struggle to make ends meet. Sharma plays an orthodox and patriarchal husband who engages in an exchange with his wife who is likely to earn more than him.

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