Arundhati Roy's 1989 Film 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones' To Screen at Berlin Film Fest

New Delhi: A 4K restored version of "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones", author and activist Arundhati Roy's cult 1989 movie about student angst and ambitions, will be screened at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival as part of the Berlinale Classics segment.The Booker Prize-winning author penned the screenplay and also played a major role in the TV movie, which is among the line-up of 10 films for the film gala's coveted segment.

The film, which featured a very young Shah Rukh Khan and Manoj Bajpayee as part of the cast, was directed by her then husband Pradip Krishen, who will attend the festival with Roy.

Set in an architecture school in Delhi in the mid-1970s, "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones" is a whimsical campus comedy originally made for Doordarshan and later acquired cult status among film enthusiasts. It was a rare film that captured the spirit and anxieties of the student life of the time.

The movie's story combined humour with sharp social observation and followed Anand Grover, nicknamed Annie by his friends, a misguided visionary who gets into trouble for making fun of the principal Y D Billimoria known as Yamdoot.

The film was partly inspired by Roy's experiences of studying at the leading architecture institute, School of Planning and Architecture, in Delhi. This was the first screenplay by Roy, who also worked with Krishen for his first film, the 1985 colonial-period drama "Massey Sahib".

The duo later collaborated for 1992's "Electric Moon" with Roy once again writing the screenplay and Krishen taking on directing duties.

Besides Roy, "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones" also featured Arjun Raina and Roshan Seth in lead roles. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and acclaimed actor Manoj Bajpayee, who were both struggling in the Delhi theatre circuit at the time, appeared in small but significant roles.

In her memoir "Mother Mary Comes To Me" published last year, Roy recalled how the movie was greenlit by Doordarshan.

"My script was about life in the School of Architecture: the wacky anarchy of that

campus, the stoned, bombed- out students and the dialect of English that we spoke - an inventive mix of Hindi and English. It was set in 1974. We called it 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones'. In Delhi University slang, 'giving it those ones' meant 'doing one's usual sh*t'," she wrote.

She also wrote about the film's first screening at Max Mueller Bhavan that received a request for an encore from the audience.

"Students jammed into the hall and crowded on to the floor. I was squashed among them in the dark. Within a few minutes the audience began to yell, roar with laughter and wolf- whistle through the film. They recognized themselves, their language, their clothes, their jokes, their silliness, and were delighted to have been deemed worthy of cinema.

"I was dazed. Thrilled. Word got out somehow - even in that pre-cell phone era - and before the screening ended, hundreds of other students had arrived at the gate

demanding to see the film. Whoever was in charge at Max Mueller Bhavan that day

sportingly allowed us to screen a second time," she wrote.

In a statement, Krishen said he is looking forward to present the movie at the Berlinale with Roy and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of Film Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded its restoration process.

"When we made 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones" almost four decades ago, it was unique in the sense that no one was making films about people like us, about the English-speaking student subculture where the characters spoke their own patois. But the film went out of circulation after a single screening on television.

"When I donated my film material to Film Heritage Foundation, I didn't imagine that 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones' would be restored and have a second innings. I am delighted that the restoration has been selected for a world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival where a film that virtually went underground will be presented to the world on such a major platform," he said.

The film, which won two National Awards for best screenplay for Roy and best feature film in English, was restored in 4K by the Film Heritage Foundation at L'Immagine Ritrovata's laboratory, in collaboration with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) and Krishen.

The restoration used the original 16 mm camera negative along with a 35 mm print, bringing renewed clarity to a film often celebrated for its irreverent tone and sharply observed portrait of student life in late-1980s India.

"Film Heritage Foundation's policy has been to restore rare gems of Indian cinema that are in danger of being lost and forgotten and showcase India's rich film heritage to contemporary audiences. When Pradip Krishen donated a print of 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones' to the foundation, I knew that this was a film that must be restored.

"Shot on 16 mm, "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones" was a pathbreaking film at the time it was made - arguably the first 'English' film, irreverent and idiosyncratic, with a screenplay and dialogues that captured so authentically the student milieu of the '70s," Dungarpur said.

According to festival organisers, Berlinale Classics 2026 represents the most ambitious line-up since the section was introduced, with works ranging from the silent era to the mid-1990s.