Payal Kapadia Hopes the Success of ‘All We Imagine as Light’ Leads to a Mumbai-Set Trilogy

With “All We Imagine as Light” having won the Grand Prix at Cannes and later earning Best Non-English Feature Film from multiple critics groups, including the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, writer/director Payal Kapadia is already planning not only her next project, but potentially the project after that, too. Speaking in a recent interview with Variety, the Golden Globe-nominated filmmaker teased her future plans now that the film has placed such a spotlight on her.

“I started writing my next movie, and it’s also going to be a film in Bombay,” said Kapadia. “It’s a bit early, but I’m thinking about doing two more films in Bombay, to have this kind of a trilogy.”

Despite the success “All We Imagine as Light” has found, it was not chosen to be India’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film. Instead, its Oscar committee awarded this honor to another female-directed film, the comedy “Laapataa Ladies” from Kiran Rao. Kapadia nor her film were hurt by this move however, with the director telling IndieWire’s Vincent Perella last month she was just happy both films have found such recognition.

“I just think it’s really great that there are two films from India that are doing this well, and they’re both by women,” she said on the 2024 Gotham Awards red carpet. “So it’s a great year for us.”

She did, however, have a different response to the criticism India’s Oscar committee head, Jahnu Barua, laid down on her film, calling it “very poor technically.”

“I don’t know what he meant… maybe I’ll meet him one day and ask him,” Kapadia told Variety.

Though she didn’t go into further detail on what audiences might expect from the next installments of her intended loose trilogy, she did go into detail in regard to her own sensibilities and how her work is shaped.

“I like watching movies where I get very much absorbed into it, and where it can take me into this dream-like feeling,” said Kapadia. “And we were trying to do this with this movie as well, with going from this very documentary feeling to something that is extremely dream-like and magic.”

“All We Imagine as Light” is currently in theaters from Janus/Sideshow.