Archive · 30 Aug 2026
Anuparna Roy Returns to Venice With Migrant Love Story
Anuparna Roy is a filmmaker from India who makes personal stories about people living on society’s margins.
Her new movie is called Lovers in the Blue Night.
It takes place in Mumbai and follows four migrants.
The characters include a closeted husband, his lonely wife, a thief and a pimp.
Their lives become connected through love and difficult efforts to survive.
Roy got the idea from people and stories she remembered from childhood.
She is returning to the Venice Film Festival after winning an award there for her first movie.
She says making films can change a lot from the first idea to the finished version.
Anuparna Roy’s second feature, Lovers in the Blue Night, will compete in Venice’s Orizzonti Competition.
The Mumbai-set film follows four migrants whose lives intersect through love, survival and forbidden desire.
Roy drew inspiration from childhood memories of a domestic worker and her gay husband in West Bengal.
The filmmaker previously won Venice’s Orizzonti Best Director Award for Songs of Forgotten Trees.
The film features Neelima Sharma, Pritam Pilania, Bhushan Shimpi, Jatin Sarin, Kajal Keshav and Vinod Suryavanshi.
- Who
- Writer-director Anuparna Roy and the cast of Lovers in the Blue Night.
- What
- Roy’s second feature film will compete in the Orizzonti Competition at the Venice International Film Festival.
- When
- The Venice International Film Festival is scheduled for September 2–12; the year is not specified.
- Where
- The film is set in Mumbai and will screen in competition at Venice.
- Why
- Roy explores migrant lives, intimate connections, survival and forbidden desire through a story inspired by remembered people and experiences.
- Film
- Lovers in the Blue Night
- Director
- Anuparna Roy
- Competition
- Orizzonti Competition, Venice International Film Festival
- Setting
- Mumbai
- Previous Venice award
- Orizzonti Best Director for Songs of Forgotten Trees
- Central characters
- A closeted husband, his lonely wife, a small-time thief and a pimp
- Cast
- Neelima Sharma, Pritam Pilania, Bhushan Shimpi, Jatin Sarin, Kajal Keshav and Vinod Suryavanshi