New Delhi: National Award-winning director Raam Reddy’s The Fable will now have a Hindi theatrical release across India on 12 September. The Hindi release is titled Jugnuma.
Jugnuma has been making waves on the festival circuit since last year. It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and claimed best film honours at Leeds International Film Festival and the special jury prize at Mumbai’s MAMI Film Festival.
“The Fable was originally in part Hindi and part English. But this June, we decided to release it entirely in Hindi too,” Ranjan Singh of Flip Films, the film’s official distributors, told ThePrint.
“We are confident that it would connect with Indian audiences just as strongly as it did globally. And, it will stay with them long after the credits roll.”
The film features National Award-winner Manoj Bajpayee in the lead role.
The Fable is set in the late 1980s in the Indian Himalayas, where Dev (Bajpayee), the patriarch of an orchard estate, faces a mysterious series of fires that unsettle his world. The film is a fragile balance between man, nature, and myth, according to the makers.
“Bajpayee’s performance in Jugnuma will rank right alongside his finest works—Aligarh, Satya, Gangs of Wasseypur,” Singh said.
“He has brought the purity of a theatre actor to this role, making it one of his most memorable performances yet. You have not seen him in such a character so far.”
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Unsettling yet comforting
Jugnuma is produced by Guneet Monga Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap. Singh said that after watching the film, the producer duo didn’t just agree to back it but also came on board to present it.
“I had loved Raam’s Thithi, which was so rooted and genuine, and with Jugnuma, he has created a film that feels timeless,” said Kashyap, who has previously collaborated with Bajpayee on the game-changing two-part epic Gangs of Wasseypur. Reddy won the National Award for his 2016 film Thithi.
Kashyap calls Jugnuma deeply humane yet magical.
“At the centre of it, Bajpayee delivers a performance unlike anything we’ve seen before—restrained, enigmatic, and profoundly moving. It’s a film which I am extremely proud to present to the Indian audience,” Kashyap added.
Oscar-winning presenter & executive producer Guneet Monga Kapoor said that Jugnuma both unsettled and comforted her, while reminding her of cinema’s deepest purpose.
Monga said the movie has been shot on film and every grain of colour speaks, adding to its timeless beauty.
“We are proud to bring it to audiences in India, because films of this calibre deserve to be experienced and celebrated in theatres,” she added.
Jugnuma also features Deepak Dobriyal, Priyanka Bose, Tillotama Shome, Hiral Sidhu and Awan Pookot. The Hindi-language dialogue is written by Varun Grover and is produced by Prspctvs Production in collaboration with Maxmedia and Sikhya Entertainment.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)