Photos: ABOUT AN INTIMATE MATTER to Premiere at Busan Film Festival

About an Intimate Matter (Ekanto Byaktigoto Bishoy), the queer psychological drama written and directed by debut filmmaker Sandeep Kumar Paul, will have its world premiere at the 31st Busan International Film Festival.

The Bengali-language feature will premiere on October 8 at 2:40 PM at LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 3 as part of A Window on Asian Cinema, Busan's showcase for distinctive contemporary films and emerging voices from across Asia.

Produced by International Emmy-winning producer Apoorva Bakshi and Monisha Thyagarajan of Awedacious Originals, Abid Aziz Merchant and Neeraj Churi of Lotus Visual Productions; the film brings together independent producing partners across India, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The film marks Awedacious Originals' first Bengali-language production and was shot entirely in West Bengal over a tightly planned 12-day schedule. Its Busan premiere follows the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of Awedacious Originals' short film Aman, extending a period of international festival momentum for the independent mini major.

A Private Image Becomes Public Punishment

About an Intimate Matter follows Swarna, a high-school science teacher, and her partner Driti, who move to a quiet suburban town hoping to begin a new chapter together. Their sense of stability is shattered when a student discovers Swarna's intimate photographs on social media and circulates them among his classmates.

The gossip soon turns into a form of institutional punishment. Swarna's authority as a teacher is eroded by the gaze of her students, while colleagues and administrators begin to treat her private life as a professional offence. The film traces how a digital breach can quickly become moral policing, workplace discrimination and a wider public claim over a woman's body, identity and relationship.

As both her career and partnership come under pressure, Swarna must decide how far she is willing to go to reclaim her autonomy. The film asks a pointed contemporary question: who is permitted privacy, and why does the violation of that privacy so often become a trial of the person who was exposed?

Rather than frame Swarna and Driti's relationship as something that must be explained, Paul places the couple's ordinary intimacies at the centre of the film. Their contradictions, tenderness, frustrations and desires are allowed to exist without apology. The result is a story about queer life that is rooted in a specific social world, yet immediately recognisable in its exploration of dignity, consent and the right to live without public permission.

Sandeep Kumar Paul, writer and director, said: 'Having About an Intimate Matter start its festival journey at Busan is deeply meaningful to me. The film grew from years of listening, observing and trying to understand how profession, class and social expectation enter our most private relationships. I did not want to look at queer lives from the outside or treat them as exceptional. I wanted Swarna and Driti to have the same contradictions, desires, vulnerabilities and dignity as anyone else. I am grateful that this intimate story, rooted in West Bengal, will begin its journey with an international audience.'

Apoorva Bakshi, producer and co-founder of Awedacious Originals, said: 'We were drawn to Sandeep's distinctive cinematic voice and the quiet, deeply human way in which he explores identity, intimacy and social prejudice. There is a remarkable restraint to the film; it never announces its politics, but allows them to emerge through its characters, their relationships and the world they inhabit. It is a deeply personal story about dignity, desire and the courage to live truthfully, brought to life through affecting performances. We're incredibly proud that About an Intimate Matter, our first Bengali-language production, will begin its journey at Busan, and we could not imagine a more meaningful home for its world premiere.'

Neeraj Churi, producer, said: 'This film is deeply personal to me as a producer. Swarna's circumstances are specific, but the desire to live and love without being made answerable to public judgment is universal. Busan gives us the opportunity to carry her story beyond its geographical setting and into a larger international conversation.'

From Street Photography to a First Feature

The film grew from Paul's earlier work in street and documentary photography. In 2016 and 2017, he photographed Pride walks and other gatherings in Kolkata, but gradually felt that still images could not hold the emotional complexity of the lives and relationships he was observing.

The story became more personal through a close friend who was struggling to reconcile his identity with the expectations around him. That experience stayed with Paul and shaped his interest in silence, fear, self-discovery and the emotional cost of being constantly measured against social ideas of respectability.

While developing the screenplay, Paul worked closely with queer friends and collaborators. Their lived experiences and conversations continued to challenge and reshape the characters, dialogue and emotional world of the film. Producer Neeraj Churi, a queer cisgender man, also brought his perspective to the development and production process.

A Visual Language of Confinement and Release

Paul's visual design follows Swarna's psychological journey. In the early sections of the film, the sky is deliberately kept outside the frame, creating a feeling of suffocation and confinement. As the story progresses, the sky gradually enters the image, marking a movement toward resilience and freedom.

The film was shot in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, which creates a subtle sense of compression around Swarna. The winter setting adds another layer to the visual language. Bodies remain covered, movement is limited and warmth becomes necessary, echoing the ways people conceal parts of themselves when they cannot live openly.

Paul's approach allows the film's politics to emerge through behaviour, composition and the accumulation of everyday judgments. The prejudice Swarna faces is rarely announced. It appears in glances, professional language, institutional procedure and the growing assumption that her private life is available for public examination.

About the Director

Sandeep Kumar Paul grew up in Kolkata, where the city's theatre, visual art and street culture shaped his creative voice. Trained in engineering and business, he began his artistic practice in Bengali theatre before moving into illustration, street and documentary photography, and eventually filmmaking.

His work is rooted in close observation, with a particular interest in characters navigating private lives within larger social structures. He approaches them with emotional specificity, resisting the impulse to reduce individuals to their identities or social categories. About an Intimate Matter marks his feature-film debut.

About Awedacious Originals

Founders Apoorva Bakshi and Monisha Thyagarajan launched Awedacious Originals with offices in California and India. Its first documentary series THE HUNT FOR VEERAPPAN released on NFLX and doc film WOMB on Prime Video garnered critical acclaim and the widest viewership numbers for any doc projects on both platforms from the region. Its latest, THE GLASSWORKER, a Miyazaki-style, hand-drawn animation film which premiered at Annecy 2024, was the first to be the official entry and compete in the International and Animation category, Oscars 2025, and has now been released theatrically across regions.

The company, through collaborative partnerships with filmmakers, aims to share bold, unusual, and compelling stories, even if that means pushing boundaries and taking risks.

Films traveling the festival circuit include the award-winning MADINA, a co-production with Kazakhstan that premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival, AMAN, a trans pregnancy drama that was a finalist at the Short Cuts competition at TIFF 2026 headed to BFI for its European premiere, and About an Intimate Matter, scheduled to premiere at the Busan International Film Festival 2026.

Busan Screening Schedule

October 8, 2026 at 2:40 PM — LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 3 — Screening 125

October 10, 2026 at 6:40 PM — CGV Centum City 1 — Screening 290

October 14, 2026 at 7:40 PM — CGV Centum City 2 — Screening 668

Film Details

Title: About an Intimate Matter (Ekanto Byaktigoto Bishoy)

Original languages: Bengali

Subtitles: English

Genre: Psychological drama

Duration: 97 minutes

Writer and director: Sandeep Kumar Paul

Producers: Apoorva Bakshi, Monisha Thyagarajan, Neeraj Churi and Abid Aziz Merchant

Associate producer: Jenisha Dave

Production: Awedacious Originals

Co-producing partners: Lotus Visual Productions

World premiere: 31st Busan International Film Festival

Festival section: A Window on Asian Cinema

Festival dates: October 6 to 15, 2026