KHORIYA, Vishwendra Singh's Debut Film, to Premiere at Busan Film Festival
The Nepali-Hindi drama follows two half-brothers facing a bird flu outbreak on the outskirts of Delhi NCR.
Indian filmmaker Vishwendra Singh's debut feature Khoriya will have its World Premiere at the 31st Busan International Film Festival in the 'A Window on Asian Cinema' section.
The film, shot in Nepali and Hindi, is produced by Niharika Singh, Faraz Khan and Prayas Deepti, with filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia serving as executive producer.
Set on the outskirts of Delhi NCR, Khoriya follows two Nepali half-brothers whose precarious lives are further destabilised when a sudden bird flu outbreak threatens their failing poultry farm. As one pursues a parlour worker attempting to escape her home and the other spirals into alcohol and despair, their struggle for dignity takes them into the city's darker underbelly.
The film explores the lives of Nepali migrant workers navigating an urban ecosystem in which they are indispensable to the city's functioning, yet largely invisible within its social fabric.
Khoriya previously featured at the NFDC Waves Film Bazaar 2025 Work in Progress Lab, where it won the Post-Production Grant.
For the first-time director, the film grew out of a documentary project he began in 2019, when he spent time observing migrant communities from Nepal and Northeast India living and working around Delhi. The experience became the foundation for a fictional narrative exploring migration, masculinity, aspiration, labour and the universal need for belonging.
'Khoriya began with my interest in people who have been deprived of a sense of home—people who leave everything behind and arrive in an unfamiliar city in search of a more dignified life,' said Vishwendra Singh. 'I wanted to stay close to their silences, contradictions, loneliness and tenderness, and to the struggle to hold on to dignity in a world that can make people feel disposable. The film also draws from my own upbringing in an army household and my proximity to the aspirations surrounding military recruitment. To have my first feature premiere at Busan is deeply overwhelming. Busan has played such an important role in discovering and supporting Asian filmmakers, and I cannot think of a more meaningful place for Khoriya to begin its journey.'
The film marks another independent feature from Future East, the production company founded by Ashim Ahluwalia, whose films have premiered at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance and other major international festivals.
Ahluwalia, who has worked with Singh for nearly a decade, sees Khoriya as part of a new generation of independent Indian cinema emerging outside conventional production structures. 'I've known Vishwendra for many years, and Khoriya feels like the emergence of a very distinct filmmaking voice,' said Ashim Ahluwalia, executive producer. 'What interested me was the way the film enters a world that is rarely represented on screen without turning its characters into an issue or an argument. There is an intimacy and contradiction to these lives that Vishwendra captures very instinctively. For Future East, the film also represents our continued commitment to backing filmmakers who don't necessarily fit existing categories. We're very proud that his first feature will premiere at Busan.'
Niharika Singh, producer and partner at Future East, says, 'Khoriya is precisely the kind of film we want to champion at Future East—singular, deeply rooted in a specific world and made by a filmmaker with a distinctive point of view. Vishwendra approaches the lives of Nepali migrant workers with tremendous intimacy, without reducing them to victims or symbols. The film is specific to a community and a place, but its questions around dignity, aspiration and belonging are universal. We are thrilled that Busan will introduce Vishwendra's voice and these characters to an international audience.'
From documentary observation to fiction
Vishwendra's engagement with the film's world began in the summer of 2019, when he documented the lives of migrant workers living on the margins of Delhi's service economy. His encounters with communities from Nepal and Northeast India revealed recurring themes of displacement, forgotten ambitions and the desire for recognition.
The film also examines the longstanding aspiration among Nepali workers toward recruitment in the Indian Army, a subject with particular resonance for Singh, who grew up in an army household.
Rather than presenting migration through a purely socio-political lens, Khoriya uses the intimate lives of its characters to examine the collision between aspiration and survival.
Singh previously worked at Future East Film between 2016 and 2019, assisting Ahluwalia on projects including Daddy (2017), the horror anthology Field Guide to Evil (2018) and Netflix's CLA$$ (2023). His debut short Hauah, in the Braj language, screened at the New York Indian Film Festival, Dharamshala International Film Festival, Jagran Film Festival and Nottingham Arts Mela.
Khoriya leads Future East's 2026–27 slate, which also includes Ahluwalia's Unidentified Actress, an India-UK-Germany co-production currently in production; Rayit Hashmat Qazi's Kashmir-set Sawdust; and Heroic Frenzies, an India-Italy co-production set in 16th-century Italy.
Director's Statement
Khoriya was not born as fiction, but as a documentary of the half-buried hopes and dreams of migrant labourers nestled on the peripheries of the city and society. Underneath the rubble of metropolitan excess and waste, in an almost sewer-like ecosystem, resilient men and women wearing different faces occupy these shadows and rename them home. In the summer of 2019, I immersed myself in documenting these transient lives that seemingly exist only as fodder for the city's vain needs.
There is an unspoken weight, a quiver in their voice that reveals long-forgotten memories and distant fortunes — a pattern I noticed in almost everyone I spoke to. The seething angst of their eroded identities and deferred dreams eventually dissolved into a singular experience across various migrant communities — of striving for recognition, of the scorn of being overlooked. A sentiment so essential, so universal, not unlike anything expressed in the past, these stories revealed to me a very specific vector of their manifestation, one that, like their efforts, seldom sees the light of day. What emerged was a narrative concerning the uncertain lives of Nepali migrant workers, an essential yet unseen force within India's urban fabric.
The film also spotlights the dregs of career options Nepali workers are often offered in India, specifically in army recruitments. An absurd proposition of potentially physically donating one's life to the service of a nation apart from one's own. I naturally, deeply resonated with this, having once stood among countless aspirants chasing the perceived ideals of courage and honour.
Through Khoriya, I attempt to navigate the fragile boundary between aspiration and survival — the intricacies of a system that threatens to consume carefree spirits. It is, at its core, a metaphor for the universal human struggle to find one's place in an ever-evolving world. Ultimately, this story seeks to reflect the timeless human desire to belong — a poignant exploration of the delicate threads that bind our lives, offering an intimate experience for audiences who have independently carried the weight of their own dreams and confronted the challenges of forging their path in a world out of their control.
Director's Biography
Vishwendra Singh is an Indian filmmaker based in the national capital, Delhi. Working extensively at Future East Film between 2016-2019, assisting filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia, he has been part of various feature films and an episodic series: the gangster epic Daddy [2017], the horror anthology Field Guide To Evil [2018] by Alamo Drafthouse (US) and Netflix's (India) OTT series CLA$$ [2023]. His first short film, Hauah, in his native Braj language, was awarded and showcased at the New York Indian Film Festival (US), the Dharamshala International Film Festival (India), the Jagran Film Festival (India), Nottingham Arts Mela (UK). Along with long-format fiction projects, Vishwendra also works in advertising, directing and producing brand commercials.
Producer's Biography
Niharika Singh is a film actress and producer from India. She began her career as a model in her teens, winning the Miss India Earth title in 2005, later expanding her interest in cinema at the Film and Television Institute of India. Niharika made her acting debut with the film 'Miss Lovely', which premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. In 2016, she was selected for Berlinale Talents. Her career expanded toward social advocacy after spending more than two decades in the entertainment industry & she has widely spoken on panels at The New School, Harvard, Columbia, and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Niharika joined Future East Film in 2019 as a partner, overseeing the development and production of long-form projects. She co-founded Future East Digital with filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia, turning producer with the international Netflix series 'CLA$$' (2023). She is currently directing a non-fiction film and producing projects that challenge societal norms and interrogate social structures in the Indian subcontinent.
Faraz Khan founded Going Rogue in 2016. Since then, they have produced award-winning commercials and content for brands and agencies. He produced an independent full-length feature film 'Shoebox,' which premiered at DIFF in 2021.
Prayas Deepti started 'Inquilab Studios' with the idea to support indie projects and make a niche space for Independent films. He has produced Kabir Mehta's short 'Nitty Gritty Punjab Police,' which played at Kassel Dokfest, New Orleans, and others. He also co-produced Rajesh S. Jala's first feature, which had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2023 and was part of the Hong Kong Asian Film Fund & Marche du Film.
Future East Film
Founded by filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia, Future East Film is an artistically driven production company committed to developing new forms of cinema in India and creating work for global audiences.
The company's first feature, John & Jane (2005), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and Berlinale and received numerous awards, including an Indian National Award and the European Media Art Award. Miss Lovely (2012) had its World Premiere at Cannes, while Events in a Cloud Chamber (2016) premiered at Venice and subsequently screened at festivals including BFI London and IDFA.
Future East's projects have premiered at major international festivals including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam and the London Film Festival. The company also produced the Netflix series CLA$$ (2023).
Khoriya leads Future East's 2026–27 slate, followed by Ashim Ahluwalia's Unidentified Actress, an India-UK-Germany co-production currently in production; Rayit Hashmat Qazi's Kashmir-set Sawdust; and Heroic Frenzies, an India-Italy co-production set in 16th-century Italy.
Film Details
Title: Khoriya
Director: Vishwendra Singh
Producers: Niharika Singh, Faraz Khan, Prayas Deepti
Executive Producer: Ashim Ahluwalia
Languages: Nepali, Hindi
Duration: 81 minutes
World Premiere: 31st Busan International Film Festival
Section: A Window on Asian Cinema
Production: Future East Film
