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Why 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones' resonates: 'No heroes here, just unsure characters'

Scroll | March 10, 2026 8:41 PM CST

It’s an Annie kind of weekend, especially in Mumbai. Pradip Krishen’s brilliant campus comedy In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, written by Arundhati Roy, is being released in cinemas for the first time ever on March 13.

Alongside the theatrical release, Annie will be screened in Mumbai at two special events. One is by the Film Heritage Foundation on March 13, at which Krishen and Roy will be present. Before that screening, Krishen will present Annie at the Red Lorry Film Festival (March 13-15). The festival will show Annie alongside Krishen’s two other features, Massey Sahib (1986) and Electric Moon (1992).

Annie was premiered on Doordarshan in a single late-night slot in 1989. The movie went on to become a cult classic, beloved for its realistic depiction of student culture, affectionate character sketches and quotable lines. Roy’s finely written chronicle of architecture students struggling to complete their final year projects drew from her own experiences at the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi in the 1970s.

Roy set Annie in 1974, a year before the Emergency. The fictitious college in the movie has its own dictator in the form of the principal Billimoria (Roshan Seth), who torments the students, especially the idealistic Annie (Arjun Raina). The cast includes Arundhati Roy, Divya Seth, Rituraj and Shah Rukh Khan in...