Indian filmmaker Yashasvi Juyal's debut feature 'The Ink Stained Hand and the Missing Thumb' premieres at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival following an unconventional path to production. The film follows a toll booth worker processing the supernatural return of his lover, who dies in a highway accident, weaving together grief, folklore traditions, and the danger inherent to India's highway infrastructure. Rather than pitching before production, Juyal completed the film first, then sought distribution.

Juyal developed the narrative from interviews with actual toll booth workers in North India, where a casual remark from one worker about being 'dead' and a 'ghost' sparked the creative concept. His approach draws heavily on his grandmother's storytelling traditions from the upper Himalayas, his personal experiences witnessing highway expansion reshape his hometown, and influences from international experimental filmmakers. The work explores how infrastructure transformation affects working communities, using humour and regional supernatural registers to examine lives caught in transition.