Chicago South Asian Film Festival (CSAFF) reveals the film and talent lineup for this year’s event, to be held between September 22 – 25, with the curtain raiser on September 16 – 17.
The festival, the largest of its kind in the Midwest, will present over 80 films in Downtown Chicago, at the Columbia Film Row in the South Loop, and at DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts in the loop with over 125 film makers and artists making their way to Chicago for this annual event. Festival is proud to showcase 27 World Premieres, 23 US Premieres and 30+ Chicago Premieres.
“A carefully curated collection of independent films, shorts, documentaries, episodic, events, and discussions will create the four-day Festival experience this year” says Jigar Shah, Festival Director of CSAFF.
The festival will open at the Columbia film Row, with Red Carpet evening. Renowned talents such as Bollywood stars Yami Gautam Dhar, Rahul Khanna, esteemed Director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Samiya Mumatz, Dananeer and Jugal Hansraj will walk the Red Carpet along with several other attending filmmakers and talent. Additionally, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki will be recognized and presented with a SAFA Award – South Asian Film Award for the contribution to cinema.
Opening Night will close with the World premiere of film LOST by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, whose previous film, Pink with Amitabh Bachchan and Tapsee Paannu made a mark in Indian mainstream cinema and created discussions around women’s consent. He has chosen to premiere his newest film LOST at CSAFF and gain response from Chicago as his first audiences.
There will be a Q&A session with film team. There will be a special mention of the documentary Barefoot Empress by filmmaker and Michelin star chef Vikas Khanna and Oscar winning filmmaker Doug Roland. Opening Night will also screen short Film Gray by Sakshi Gurnani and Nikhil Taneja starring actor Dia Mirza and Shreya Dhanwanthary.
On September 24th there will be Centerpiece film, No Land’s Man by renowned Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and Shrihari Sathe starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Megan Mitchell and Eisha Chopra. Festival is featuring North America Premiere and Marquee film of the festival – Shiv shastri Balboa followed by Q&A with director Ajayan Venugopalan and actor Jugal Hansraj in person coming to CSAFF. The movie stars legendary actors Anupam Kher and Neena Gupta. Festival will showcase a heart touching short film Perianayaki, which centers around the story of a Srilankan woman in New Zealand by Bala Murali Shingade and Feature Film Four Samosas by Ravi Kapoor as Closing Night film.
Film team will be present for Q&A. Festival is showcasing World Premiere of Marathi film Vaalvi by Paresh Mokashi who will be in attendance for the Q&A. The festival is proud to showcase the best award winning South Asian films from prestigious international film festivals. A Night of Knowing Nothing by Payal Kapadia which won the Best Documentary at Cannes Film Festival in 2021, Awakash by Chittaranjan Giri, Manikbabur Megh (Cloud & the Man) by Abhinandan Banerjee, Nine Hills One Valley by Paoban Haoban, Powai by Kuldip Patel, Pedro by Natesh Hegde, Maali (Gardener) by Shiv Shetty and many others.
Festival has amazing collection of films from Pakistan such as Fatima Jinnah by Danial Khan, Stay Tuned by Ali Ahmed, Dawa by Ariella Khan. Festival will showcase daring documentaries which will steer engaging conversation among the audience.
There are several films and documentaries by upcoming Women Directors from Canada such as Marginalizing Minorities by Dipti Gupta, Women Beyond Bollywood by Rahila Bootwala, This Stained Dawn by Anam Abbas. Other documentaries include Kicking Balls by Vijayeta Kumar, Humanity our race, love our religion by Sonali Devnani, Kekee Manzil: House of Art which centers around contemporary art movement in India by UK based film maker Dilesh Korya. This documentary features Anish Kapoor who is the architect behind Chicago bean at Millennium Park, renowned author Salman Rushdie and music by Talvin Singh. Festival will be showcasing Ma Comrade a film from Nepal.
“We are thrilled about the lineup this year,” says Ketki Parikh, Founder & President of CSAFF.
Festival activities will be primarily centered in the city of Chicago, where we will have the short films such as Rising Lotus by Gurinder J Singh, Now and Never by Kymberly Harris, Kiss by Masaan and Sacred Games famed Varun Grover starring White Tiger famed Adarsh Gourav and Swan and Kirkire, Bad Egg by Mehak Jamal starring Zoya Hussain, Akshay Oberoi, Jim Sarbh and Sheeba Chaddha, The Way we are by Nihit Bhave starring Manav Kaul and Amruta Subhash, Crossroads by Sarita Khurana, Embrace by Jacquile Kambo, Today is Wednesday, film made during COVID by Pulkit Datta, Lohri by Virinder Singh Paul starring Jaskaran Singh, Invisible Brown Man by Pritesh Shah, Is this Mrs. Varma by Shawn Parikh and Harsh Mahadeshwar and many others.
Festival will also showcase local Chicago filmmakers and their films – Before After, Trek to the top, Propinquity, Ozona, episodic Stuck in Reality and many others. CSAFF will be hosting a special LGBTQ+ section to amplify the voices of queer and gay community with the films such as Coming out of the Time Machine featuring Karan Soni, Same Love, Pav Bhaji, Look like you etc. We will be showing Bully High written and directed by Bill McAdams, Jr. which centers around controversial issues of religious prejudices, sexual orientation, and bullying. The coming-of-age drama is toplined by an exciting young cast of Hollywood newcomers, Aneesha Madhok, Joseph Baena (son of Arnold Schwarzenegger) and many others.
“We are so proud of the caliber of the films and the diversity we will be presenting this year, and it is so powerful to be able to showcase it in the theaters” says Jigar Shah, Festival Director of CSAFF.
CSAFF will close on Sunday, September 25 with an awards ceremony for best feature and short films, as chosen by our audience. Through the festival there will be mini events, discussions, Film makers Lounge Series, Press Conferences and CSAFF After Party Bollywood night.
For additional information on CSAFF 2022, including screening times, locations, featured guests and ticketing details, visit csaff.org.
CHICAGO SOUTH ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE 2022
| Film Name | Date | Day | Time (CT) | Venue | Director Name |
| Awakash | 9/16/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | DePaul | Chittaranjan Giri |
| KO AHAM (WHO AM I) | 9/16/2022 | Friday | 10:00am | DePaul | Shireesh Khemariya |
| Manikbabur Megh (Cloud & the Man) | 9/17/2022 | Saturday | 11:00am | DePaul | Abhinandan Banerjee |
| Kekee Manzil: House of Art | 9/17/2022 | Saturday | 2:00 PM | DePaul | Dilesh Korya |
| A Night of Knowing Nothing | 9/17/2022 | Saturday | 4:00 PM | DePaul | Payal Kapadia |
| Love Death and Everything In Between | 9/22/2022 | Thursday | 6:30pm | Columbia | Soham Kundu |
| Trek to the Top | 9/22/2022 | Thursday | 6:30pm | Columbia | Shreela Chakrabartty |
| Period Drama | 9/22/2022 | Thursday | 8:00 PM | Columbia | Anushka Tina Nair, Lauryn Anthony |
| Bike | 9/22/2022 | Thursday | 8:00 PM | Columbia | Kaustuv Mukherjee |
| Resurgence | 9/22/2022 | Thursday | 8:00 PM | Columbia | Krushan Naik |
| Bad Egg | 9/22/2022 | Thursday | 8:00 PM | Columbia | Mehak Jamal |
| Ma Comrade | 9/22/2022 | Thursday | 8:00 PM | Columbia | Nirmal Poudel |
| Is This Mrs Varma? | 9/22/2022 | Thursday | 8:00 PM | Columbia | Shawn Parikh, Harsh Mahadeshwar |
| Subscribe Follow | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | DePaul | Faroukh Virani |
| Tadap (Yearning) | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | DePaul | Ishq Pradhan |
| Madhavi | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | DePaul | JACINTHA CHARLES |
| Embrace | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | DePaul | Jacquile Kambo |
| Propinquity | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | Columbia | Randy Bernales |
| Crossroads | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | DePaul | Sarita Khurana |
| The Session | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | DePaul | Christina Shaver |
| The Name | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 2:30 PM | DePaul | Aaron Strand |
| Stuck in Reality | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 2:30 PM | DePaul | Puja Mohindra |
| What’s in a Name? | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 2:30 PM | DePaul | Hemant Dinkar |
| Today is Wednesday | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 2:30 PM | DePaul | Pulkit Datta |
| Humanity our race, love our religion | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 2:30 PM | DePaul | Sonali Devnani |
| Lohri | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 2:30 PM | DePaul | Virinderpaul Singh |
| Vaalvi | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 12:30 PM | Columbia | Paresh Mokashi |
| Rising Lotus | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 3:15 PM | Columbia | Gurinder J Singh |
| Powai | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 3:15 PM | Columbia | Kuldip Patel |
| Running | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 4:30 PM | DePaul | Arpita Mukherjee |
| Pedro | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 6:00 PM | DePaul | Natesh Hegde |
| Wagro | 9/23/2022 | Friday | 6:00 PM | DePaul | Sainath S Uskaikar |
