The fiercely independent Rima Das built a unique career path in motion pictures. Starting with Village Rockstars in 2017, she has directed intensely personal films that explore her upbringing in rural Assam as well as contemporary issues in Indian society.
Village Rockstars won Best Feature Film at the National Film Awards in India and was selected as India’s official Academy Awards entry. Village Rockstars 2 (2024) received the Kim Jiseok Award at Busan. This year she brings Not a Hero, which earned the Crystal Bear Special Mention in the Generation KPlus section at the 2026 Berlinale, to the Window on Asia Cinema section at Busan. Das is also serving on the New Currents jury.
The story of a privileged youth who is forced to spend a summer in a rural village, Not a Hero is marked by extraordinary performances by its young cast. Das and cinematographer Aditya Varma capture the beauty and hardship of the village in intimate detail. It is a deeply moving film that evokes early Satyajit Ray.
The Film Stage: How has your work been on the New Currents jury?
Rima Das: It’s not my first time on a jury. They’re all tough. Being a filmmaker, a director, it’s hard watching curated films from different genres. I feel so much for the filmmakers. It’s always a great responsibility.
You’ve been to BIFF several times. How has the festival evolved?
I came with Bulbul Can Sing in 2018. I didn’t know much about Busan or the festival team. I just enjoyed myself and left, like any visitor. I started learning more about the festival when I brought a script to the co-production market. Then in 2024 Village Rockstars 2 won the Kim Jiseok Award here. This Year I brought Not a Hero. I think I’m more responsible about the festival now. I’m not just a filmmaker. I’m becoming a bit of a mentor, especially to filmmakers from India who want to ask me questions about the festival.
Netflix has been a huge presence here. Do you think it is helping the Indian film industry, or is it trying to push more commercial projects?
We need more of a balance. India’s a big country, and we have a lot of streaming platforms. Maybe too many. Earlier we just had Netflix and Amazon. Now there are probably 20 others. I can understand there is a business model and there are people involved in both the business and creative sides. But it’s a difficult environment for IP.
I haven’t worked closely with Netflix. I’ve always been independent. Village Rockstars and Bulbul Can Sing were on Netflix for five years, but I don’t have time to watch a lot of streaming movies and series. But it feels like a lot of noise everywhere. It’s so easy for good films to get lost.
Especially for independent films.
Indie filmmakers don’t have a support system, so the technical details of releases, the entire distribution process, is not easy. I can see a growing interest in global IP, which gives me hope that there might be a growing audience of people who are interested in different kinds of films. My question is: do we need good cinema, good art, good books for the next generation? If so, then we need to work to save that art, especially those indie films that talk about real life. I admit sometimes I feel hopeless.
Has AI affected your work?
We can’t stop it. I just watched Long, Long Night, an animated feature. I was crying the entire film. As long as we can be emotional, as long as a film can depict those emotions, those universal feelings, as long as we are connecting, we’ll be good. As long as AI and other elements don’t control us, control our emotions, we will be okay. We can’t avoid AI, we just need to find a way to coexist and use it productively.
My film Not a Hero deals to some extent with the “noise” of technology, how it affects children. When children can accept silence, stillness, it gives me some hope.
We need to be more aware, spend more time with children. But parents today don’t have enough time. When I take children to the mountains, for example, they become adventurous and have fun. But many parents can’t afford to do that.
I’m not sure how you established a connection with the children in Not a Hero. The performances are just so natural and unforced. It’s like they’re not even aware of the camera. They’re just being themselves.
Since I was a child, I was interested in acting. I love to sing and dance. I come from a village where films were just meant to be watched. I had an academic background. My father was a teacher, my mother had a book store and also a printing press.
When I finished my master’s, I moved to Bombay to become an actor. I acted in college, but in Bombay I was too self-conscious, especially about reading lines. My accent wasn’t good. Then I lost myself. Fortunately, I started watching movies, world cinema especially. I fell in love and bought a camera and started making movies.
Because I was so self-conscious when acting, I started working with non-actors. I gave them freedom. I allowed them to be themselves. As I observed them, I could adjust their roles. It wasn’t like method acting. I knew who they were, what they were like, and I could write their characters based on that.
Now I use a mix of professionals and non-actors, but I always allow them to be themselves, not trying to control them all the time. That means there is no performance pressure. Allowing them to be themselves helps, I think.
How did you develop that technique without any training in filmmaking?
I learned from watching films by contemporary directors and the masters. Because I wasn’t in school, I didn’t have access to a lot of titles. I didn’t start with a curriculum, like Theory of Film and all that. I watched at random, whatever I could see, and I watched like they were paintings. I didn’t even know what a production designer was, what a color palette was. I had no ideas about lenses. I had a cheap Canon digital camera with one lens. So I guess my technique was intuition.
It was challenging. I’m not technically a cinematographer. What I would do is shoot based on how an audience would feel, creating scenes and moods from that viewpoint. I just looked so that I can feel.
Not a Hero
How do you plan your projects?
First: what is my intention when I’m making this film? What I’m getting from nature, from this world, how can I give that back? How can I share? Then I love the craft, you know? Apart from the story, the craft is a little different each time. Also, I need to make sure I’m not losing my voice, that I remain authentic.
You’ve set new standards for women filmmakers in India. What do you think they need the most?
Brave producers. More money. The problem is not women filmmakers. They’re out there. The problem for independents is making films consistently. The next film is always a challenge.
Filmmakers also need to learn how to produce. It took me three years to shoot the first Village Rockstars. Then I took it to festivals and markets, trying to nurture my work.
Gender is always a problem. We’re in a patriarchy, you know? Outside Mumbai, girls can’t even go out after six o’clock. As a filmmaker, I can’t take my camera and go anywhere I want. I’m always dependent on a man. Someone has to accompany me. I just do what is possible. Getting angry doesn’t help. Bitterness doesn’t help.
You can’t worry about what you cannot control. You do what is possible. If you can make dal, you just make dal. You don’t think about the chicken curry, you just make your dal.
You can’t control the changes in the industry, either. But here in Busan, people aren’t just coming to the movies–they are watching carefully. They are staying for the Q&As afterwards. They are listening. That gives me hope. So let’s create more space for them, and we’ll see the results later.
Not a Hero screened at the 2026 Busan International Film Festival.
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