Fae Pictures And KARMAFilm Board Maya Bastian's THE DEVIL'S TEARS Tamil-Canadian Feature

Busan Anand Ramayya's KARMA Film have come on to produce The Devil's Tears with Blackout Media, with Shant Joshi's Fae Pictures to executive produce. The partnership marks a major milestone for the two South Asian-Canadian owned production companies. 

Development is financed by Creative Saskatchewan, and the project has been selected for the 1497 Mentor Lab and as a finalist for the Breaking Through the Lens Chopard Action Grant

Written and to be directed by Maya Bastian as her debut feature, The Devil's Tears is an ensemble horror film set in a remote Sri Lankan jungle village that has been ravaged by war. A red rain begins to fall at night amplifying the dark proclivities of the villagers, the dismantling all societal order.

Producers are Karl Janisse of Blackout Media (Tigress), Anand Ramayya and Kelly Balon of KARMA Film (Donkeyhead, Our Big Punjabi Family), and executive producing is Shant Joshi, Lindsay Blair Goeldner, and Abdul Malik of Fae Pictures (In Flames, Framing Agnes).

The project is currently in development with financing expected to begin late 2024 and production to take place in 2025-2026 in India.  

Coming off of their successful launches of South Asian-Canadian titles Donkeyhead and In Flames, the milestone partnership aims to leverage a Canadian international co-production raising towards a sub $15M dollar budget with an ensemble Tamil cast as a formidable competitor for arthouse festival audiences, South Indian commercial audiences, and global genre audiences. 

“The Devil's Tears is a story like no other. I'm proud to be supported by these incredible companies who all have a strong track record of bringing unique South Asian voices to audiences worldwide,” says Bastian.

“Maya's background in conflict journalism combined with her deep personal connections to the community have added layer upon layer of subtle complexities that fill this incredibly original script with the potential to be a truly groundbreaking film. The Devil's Tears and its filmmakers are the reason we exist as producers and we are thrilled to help bring this to fruition,” said Ramayya.

“The recent box office successes for distinct and unique writer-director voices like Gerwig, Nolan, Atlee, and Nelson, and the wave of sold out theatres for socially relevant arthouse cinema with a genre bent gives us confidence to face the market with a dynamic project like this,” said Shant Joshi. “We are excited to continue to decolonize cinema with The Devil's Tears, pointing our lens towards the oppression and genocide of ethnic minorities, an increasingly universal theme given the rise of fascism in many parts of the world.”

ABOUT BLACKOUT MEDIA

A Canadian production company with an entirely global mindset. We aim to use the foundation of knowledge and resources available to Canadian producers to help champion voices around the world. Boutique film and series development, using new tools to tell timeless stories.

ABOUT KARMA Film

KARMA Film is helmed by Ramayya and producing partner Kelly Balon and has built an impressive track record with over 80 hours of content and 40 awards including five Geminis (Canada's Emmy), two Canada Awards for excellence in diverse content and official selection for festivals ranging from Sundance to Durban. Honoured in 2020 with the Reelworld TRAILBLAZER AWARD and most recently recognized by Canadian Media Producers Association with the 2022 Established Producer Award, KARMA Film is a member of SMPIA, CMPA National Board of Directors and ACE Producers Network. 

ABOUT FAE PICTURES

Based in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto, FAE PICTURES is an award-winning media production company on a mission to decolonize Hollywood by creating cinematic content for, by, and about queer, trans, and BIPOC people. We have won the Sundance NEXT Award, the GLAAD Media Award, the Berlin TEDDY Award, the Bergen Golden Owl Award, and the XPOSED Supreme Lolly Award.

Our films and series have premiered at Sundance (Framing Agnes), Cannes Directors' Fortnight (In Flames), Berlin (International Dawn Chorus Day), Toronto (Scaring Women at Night), Canneseries (Streams Flow From A River), Palm Springs Short Fest (Diaspora), and Aspen Shortsfest (I Live Here).

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