Arundhati Roy boycotts Berlin fest premier of her revamped 1980s cult classic – the film shows why

Late one night in 1989, Indian audiences watching the national TV station were captivated when a film, the likes of which they had never seen, suddenly appeared on their screens.

The main actress in the film, "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones", had an impish face dominated by expressive, kohl-lined eyes, and she carried herself with an insouciance that was thrilling. She was also the screenwriter of the peculiarly titled film, the maverick responsible for dialogues featuring a mix of Hindi and English (or “Hinglish”), the patois of millions of educated urban Indians that was never deemed worthy of cinematographic attention.

“Arundhati Roy”, read the credits, an unknown name across the country back then. But her writing, as discerning viewers could tell, was electrifying.

The film is based on Roy’s student days at New Delhi’s School of Planning and Architecture. And while it’s fiction, there’s little doubt that Radha is a young Roy, displaying all the creativity, sharpness and courage that has marked her work as a writer and activist.

Eight years after the film's TV broadcast, Roy's novel, "The God of Small Things", won the Booker Prize. In addition to her writing, her fearless activism, run-ins with India’s Supreme Court, headline-grabbing jailing, and an array of awards made Arundhati Roy an international household name. Her latest memoir, "Mother Mary Comes To Me", hit bestseller charts in several countries and has been widely hailed by critics.

But the first film Roy ever wrote simply disappeared from the public eye. "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones" won two National Film Awards when it was released in 1989, but there were no cinema screenings. In cinephile circles, it was assumed that the original 16mm film had gotten lost. That never diminished the movie’s popularity, instead helping propel it to cult film status. In the pre-internet era, video cassette (VHS) recordings of the original TV broadcast began to circulate. They were copied, borrowed, watched and rewatched until their degrading resolution made viewing virtually impossible.

The low-budget film had a scruffy, grainy quality which suited the story about student life at a Delhi architecture school in the 1960s. But before YouTube appeared and copies of the film were posted online, watching "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones" required dedication.

Now, 37 years after its TV release, "Annie" – as it’s fondly known in cinema circles – has been restored and is having its world premiere at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival under the Berlinale Classics section on Monday, February 16.

Roy was supposed to attend the premier. But on Friday, the Indian author and peace activist suddenly announced that she will not be attending the Berlinale due to the festival jury’s comments regarding the war in Gaza.

On Thursday, Berlin Film Festival jury president Wim Wenders was asked about Germany's support for Israel despite accusations of genocide in Gaza. "We have to stay out of politics," the celebrated German director replied.

In her statement, Roy noted that, “What has happened in Gaza, what continues to happen, is a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. It is supported and funded by the governments of the United States and Germany, as well as several other countries in Europe,” she said. “If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them. I am shocked and disgusted.”

Roy has never shied away from taking positions, criticising governments, institutions and individuals when they fail to stand up for human rights.

Traces of her unflinching courage are visible on screen in the first film she wrote and starred in 27 years ago.

‘This year’s bleeding-heart thesis’

Directed by Pradip Krishen, Roy’s longtime partner, the film tells the story of Anand “Annie” Grover – a hopelessly idealistic student at a state architecture institute who keeps on failing his final academic year.

Roy plays Radha, a non-conformist student thumbing her nose at societal norms requiring Indian women to be chaste, helpless and polite. She’s not afraid to take on authority, letting professors know exactly what she thinks of them and the commercial business of architecture. When the school’s principal, Yamdoot,  dismisses her final project idea as, “This year’s bleeding-heart thesis” that is of no interest to the jury, she cheekily asks him if it’s because her thesis “questions the basis of their existence? Or your existence?” She also steals his cigarettes – and enjoys them.

In her memoir, "Mother Mary Comes To Me", Roy devotes an entire chapter to the film, which marked her debut as a writer. “We called it 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones'. In Delhi University slang, ‘giving it those ones’ meant ‘doing one’s usual shit’,” she writes. “It was never meant to be anything more than fun, fringe cinema. But when it finally showed on Doordarshan [India’s national TV channel], it got an audience of millions, which would otherwise have been impossible for a film like 'Annie'.”

"Annie" captures the zeitgeist of its time – the impact of which is felt to this day, particularly in a generation and segment of the Indian population that continues to criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist policies. Roy is a vocal critic of the Modi administration’s assaults on human rights, free speech and secular principles.

In its form and content, "Annie" has all the makings of a cult film classic. “The film is honest in intent and execution, unafraid to poke fun at pretentiousness and authority, filled with lovable and relatable characters,” said Nandini Ramnath, a film journalist at Scroll India. “'Annie' was also quite pathbreaking in using the Indian English idiom. Here were students who looked and sounded like the film's viewers. They didn't sound like leftovers of British colonial rule. They didn't sound like they were parodying the language. Roy simply put into dialogue what she was hearing. Plus, she had and continues to have a great sense of humour, which courses through the film.”

Boxes of film history and a negative in archives

The film restoration chapter began a few years ago, when Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder-director of the Film Heritage Fund, a Mumbai-based NGO, heard that "Annie"’s director Krishen wanted to donate his film material. Following his years as a filmmaker, Krishen turned his attention in the 1990s to ecology and is now a leading Indian naturalist and environmentalist.

When Dungarpur flew to New Delhi to meet Krishen, he was shown a treasure trove of film history. “All these boxes were lying with all that material,” he told FRANCE 24 in a phone interview from the Berlin Film Festival days before the premier. “We started going through the scripts, photographs, notebooks, all the documentations, clapboards… and the original script of 'Annie' – not the one Arundhati wrote, which she has, but Pradip’s original script,” he noted.

While the low-budget film was shot in 16mm, Dungarpur was given a 35mm copy of the original. “When I went back, I started seeing the film on the rewinding table, and those images, the film, everything just kept coming back to me. The print didn't look that great, and I said, what about the negative?” he recounted.

When Dungarpur called Krishen, he was informed that the 16mm negative was sitting in the National Film Archive of India, and no one had any idea about its state. The Film Heritage Fund got the negative out of the archive and watched it with trepidation. “It was damaged a bit, the colours had faded, there were scratches, the sound was a mono sound. We knew that there was a lot of work on the restoration, a lot of tedious work, and I then decided that I must restore this film,” said Dungarpur.

A filmmaker himself, Dungarpur understood the cultural value of the project when he got down to the restoration work. It took a year and a half to complete, including work done at Italy’s L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna. “We had to do colour corrections, the subtitles had to be done because the subtitles have to be correct, and it was just one thing after the other,” he explained.

The effort was worth it, according to Ramnath. “What is nice about the restored 'Annie' is how it captures the original's graininess, the seedy interiors of the college hostel, the general cheerful chaos of the student dorms while also being sharper and brighter,” she noted.

For Dungarpur, it was a labour of love. “Whenever you restore any film, the first thing you want is that people see it,” he said. “You want the younger generation to see it, to discover it.”

The generation of "Annie" fans who watched the original 1989 broadcast have long acknowledged that the film is a record of a more tolerant time in India. They once believed it was a niche film, set in a specific context for a specific audience. But as cultural borders blur and the world enters a more divisive era, perhaps "Annie" has one of those for everyone.