Korean Film Fest Kicks Off in Style; Hyderabadis Revel in It

Hyderabad: Paper tiles snapped against each other on a plastic table as students tried to flip ddakji pieces they had just folded, a scene that could have slipped out of ‘Squid Game’ if not for the laughter and the Squid Game guard doodled on a postcard nearby.

Around them at Prasad Film Labs, one corner offered name stamps in Hangul, another lent out pastel hanboks for five-minute photo sessions, and a stall stacked with K-beauty products.

This was the Korean Film Festival 2025, organised by the honorary consulate-general of the Republic of Korea here along with the Embassy of South Korea in New Delhi and the Korea Film Council

“Because of Netflix you can watch drama from anywhere and it does not feel like an unfamiliar place,” said director Yoo Insik, pointing out how Korean series and films have become so accessible owing to OTTs.

The festival, which is aimed at promoting collaboration between Indian, especially Tollywood, and Korean entertainment industry, screened two features that lean on Korea’s own history. ‘A Taxi Driver’ follows a Seoul cab driver who unknowingly gets pulled into the 1980 Gwangju Uprising and risks his life to help a foreign journalist show the truth. Along with that was ‘Assassination’, set in 1930s Korea under Japanese rule, where a group of resistance fighters plans to kill a senior colonial official while watching for traitors within their ranks.

Yoo, whose work includes ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’, ‘Dr Romantic’ and ‘Vagabond’, spent much of his time talking about why Indian drama fans feel so close to his shows. He smiled as he said, “Indian fans are sincere and they love my work,” before recommending his own titles as starters along with ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’, which traces a long stretch of Korean history.

Diplomats on the stage spoke of what this growing comfort with K-dramas could mean for Hyderabad. Honorary consul-general Suresh Chukkapalli described how Telugu cinema now travels across India and abroad and said, “Today Telugu cinema means Indian cinema.”

Shooting in Korea is expensive, he noted, and Korean productions exploring Hyderabad could use local talent and crews instead. Deputy Chief of Mission Lim Sang Woo pointed to Indian singers already working in K-pop groups and added, “Why not have Indians acting in Korean dramas? I think it’s totally possible.”

Students who tried the games said it felt familiar even though nothing about it belonged to home. Rakhi, who studies Korean at EFL University, laughed about the hanbok she wore for photos and said it felt “a little bit good and weird, but interesting”.

Deepali, another student volunteer, spent the evening explaining props like Namsan Tower and banana milk to visitors and said Korean culture travels so easily because “people look for comfort in dramas, and Korea has been able to use it as a soft power to reach millions. And that I believe is something India must learn.”