Mahesh Bhatt, Soni Razdan's Yours Truly to premiere at Busan International Film Festival

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt will share the big screen with his wife Soni Razdan in his first film as an actor, titled Yours Truly. The film's makers released its poster, and also announced that it will premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, 2018 on 9 October in the Window on Asian section. Directed by Sanjoy Nag, the film also stars Aahana Kumra and Pankaj Tripathi.

Yours Truly is an adaptation of Annie Zaidi's short story The One That Was Announced.

"Busan is one of the most important film festivals in the world, and definitely, the most important festival in Asia. It is a happy space that we are in right now, If your film gets selected there because of the kind of people that get to see the film. When you are distributing a film like this you want to take it to places, and want the right people to see the film. Busan is providing an important platform to my film, that will have a world premiere there,” director Nag told Cinestaan.com.

He also informed that a film in this section is also eligible for the main competition. “Window on Asian Cinema is a separate section but the film can get selected for the main competition from this section too. There is a good chance that we might get into the main competition,” Nag said confidently. 

Yours Truly is Nag's third feature film. His first film as a director, Memories In March (2010), starring Rituporna Ghosh, Deepti Naval, Raima Sen, had its world premiere at the Pusan International Film Festival and also won the National Award for Best Feature Film in English. His second feature, Bengali film Parapaar, was based on a novel by Moti Nandy and starred Ahmed Rubel, Rituparno Sengupta and Paoli Dam.

Speaking about the cast of Yours Truly, Nag said, “More than interesting, I believe we have a brilliant cast. Pankaj Tripathi is one of the most brilliant actors we have in India. So, is Soni Razdan, who has been extremely underutilized. She has the power to deliver much more than we have seen from her.” 

Even though Mahesh Bhatt doesn’t have a full fledged role, Nag claims it is a very important one.

“Mahesh Bhatt has a very important role. That is how I will put it. He kind of completes the film, in terms of casting. He is the surprise package,” said the director. 

The poster of the film is intriguing too. Razdan, as the protagonist, looks fabulous in a relatively traditional avatar. With the images of a local train, looks like the film is set in a metro city. A grainy image of a hand-written letter in the background is interesting. The title of the film, Yours Truly, also points towards a letter.

Aahana Kumra, also dressed in a sari, and Pankaj Tripathi, who appears to be playing a bird catcher, are also a part of the poster. The litte dog, too, adds to the charm of the image. A closer look shows a faint sketch of an envelope near Kumra. Perhaps, he character is closely associated with the letter or is a character from the letter itself. Whichever the case, Nag has carved out an intriguing poster.

Yours truly is produced by Shiladitya Bora, Nikhil Chaudhary and Milapsinh Jadeja. The makers will decide on the film's release date after they return from Busan. The festival will be held from 4-13 October 2018.