EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles-based production house AK Studios, founded by producer and distribution veteran Awadhesh Kumar, is launching a slate of South Asian films here in Cannes, headed by a new project from Nirvana Inn director Vijay Jayapal and Samman Roy’s gothic horror The Undying. 

Vijay Jayapal, whose 2019 drama Nirvana Inn premiered at Busan International Film Festival, has directed absurdist political comedy An Idiot for the new outfit. 

Starring Abhinav Jha (Gamak Ghar, Trial By Fire) and Tamil actress Anupama Kumar (Ishqiya), the dialogue-free film explores the psychology behind hate crimes and is loosely inspired by the 2017 assassination of activist journalist Gauri Lankesh.

Blending a tense crime thriller structure with absurdist, deadpan humor, the film follows a right-wing zealot who travels to a sleep rural town to assassinate a progressive woman journalist – but runs into a series of darkly comic encounters along the way. 

Jayapal previously directed two well-received features that premiered at Busan – Revelations (2016), which Netflix acquired for worldwide distribution, and Nirvana Inn (2019), which after its Busan premiere won Best Actor for Adil Hussain at Indo German Film Week. His directing credits also include a segment of Tamil anthology film Aneedhi Kadhaigal, presented by Vetri Maaran. 

Meanwhile, Samman Roy has directed The Undying, an adaptation of a short story by Nobel Prize-winning Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore. Set in 19th century rural Bengal, the slow burn gothic horror follows a widow who is pronounced dead and laid out for cremation, only to awaken and return to her village. 

The cast is headed by Bengali actors Sree Bhattacharyya, Arpita De and Biswajit Das. Roy previously directed folk horror The Exile for AK Studios, which was picked up for the worldwide distribution by Buffalo 8. 

An Idiot and The Undying are both in post-production and being lined up for festival premieres later in the year. 

AK Studios was recently launched in Santa Monica by Awadhesh Kumar – former Global Head of Distribution at India’s National Film Development Corp (NFDC) – to showcase original, authentic voices from South Asia. The company plans to leverage international co-production, festival play and international sales to bring these stories to global audiences. 

In addition to The Exile, AK Studios’ previous credits also include Thinesh Kumar’s satirical comedy Hucch, which was also picked up by Buffalo 8. 

The company is also in post-production on Ponselvam Karthi’s debut feature Adrift, a contemplative drama about a young man who after escaping a strict Christian orphanage finds himself mocked, exposed and finally broken by the community he returns to. AK Studios is co-producing the Tamil-language film with India’s Yellow House Pictures and Raging Films, and Rakasree Basu’s UK-based Momentum Films. 

In development are English-language psychological thriller Dead Butterflies, which will mark the directing debut of cinematographer Karthik Muthukumar (Biriyaani), and Nilavazhagan Subbiah’s Tamil-language drama Absence, which is being set up as a US-Germany-India co-production. 

Billed as the first thriller set in Bhutan, Dead Butterflies tells the story of a celebrated artist who has been secretly killing women and using them as subjects, until he is confronted by the sister of a victim. 

“AK Studios exists to find the most compelling voices from the South Asian subcontinent and launch their stories onto the world stage,” said AK Studios founder Kumar, who is in talks with sales agents, festivals and distributors for the company’s initial slate. 

“We back ambitious first and second-time filmmakers and bring their work to global audiences through top-tier festivals, international co-productions, and multi-platform global distribution. With shifting market dynamics, there is a compelling case for high-quality features built on smart money, bold stories, and lean production. The days of indie films are back, and we intend to be at the forefront of it.”