‘The Song of Scorpions,’ ‘Qissa’ Director Anup Singh Sets Mumbai Film ‘Lasya: The Gentle Dance’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Director Anup Singh is making a new Mumbai-set short film, “Lasya: The Gentle Dance”, with producer Pretty Pictures. The story follows a father and son living as roadside beggars whose precarious shelter is repeatedly destroyed by monsoon rain, while the father’s memories of the boy’s late mother help the child find resilience and hope; Singh says the project seeks to defend cinema’s quieter, more humane storytelling.
The film will be produced by Zeeshan Ahmad and Pretty Aggarwal’s Mumbai-based Pretty Pictures, whose founders say Singh’s work values the joy and beauty in marginalised lives as well as their hardship. After completing the short, the company plans to begin Singh’s next feature early next year, reviving a project once intended as his third collaboration with Irrfan Khan, around six years after the actor’s death.
- Anup Singh is directing a short film about survival and resilience in Mumbai.
- “Lasya” follows a homeless father and son during the monsoon.
- Singh’s next feature will honour his planned collaboration with Irrfan Khan.
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Anup Singh is an Indian filmmaker known for visually rich, character-led films including Qissa and The Song of Scorpions. His work has often explored identity, memory and people living on the edges of society, using stories set in South Asia.
Mumbai is India’s biggest film centre but also a city where many people live in insecure housing and face severe monsoon rains each year. A story about a father and son surviving by the roadside draws on those conditions, while focusing on family, loss and the ways people endure hardship.
Pretty Pictures is a Mumbai production company led by Zeeshan Ahmad and Pretty Aggarwal. The planned feature also recalls Singh’s earlier connection with Irrfan Khan, the internationally known Indian actor who died in 2020 and had previously worked with Singh.