Faraz Arif Ansari’s debut feature, the queer coming-of-age Bun Tikki, with names like Abhay Deol, Shabana Azmi and Zeenat Aman in the cast, premiered at the 36th Palm Springs International Film Festival in early 2025. As the film, co-produced by Jio Studios and Manish Malhotra’s Stage5, awaits its release, over two years after wrapping production, Anzari has moved on to his next project—Saleti, a Rajasthan-set romance that he wants to mount outside the traditional Bollywood infrastructure.
Speaking exclusively to THR India, Ansari shares he’s been developing the script for Saleti for over 10 years now, and initially wanted to make it as his first film. The title alludes to a specific shade of the colour grey. “Saleti is the in-between of black and white—which is my metaphor for the in-between of love,” Ansari says.
“The film is about a love that transforms us without necessarily becoming a permanent part of our lives. Cinema often teaches us that love succeeds only when people end up together. But my experiences as a queer person have been very different. I feel some love stories are complete precisely because they never find conventional closure. This is where the film lives and breathes.”
Having directed his previous film in a mainstream setup, he’s developing Saleti as an indie project, with no conventional studios or funding currently attached. The film will be shot across multiple cities in Rajasthan, including Jaipur, Ajmer and Pushkar.
“The characters are loosely inspired by people I’ve loved in my life and by my own experiences. One of the two protagonists is a local in Ajmer and the other is your quintessential sensitive Bombay outsider. I have personal history with that place and I want to capture Rajasthan like never before. The place, in the film, goes beyond a beautiful backdrop and becomes a metaphor for an intimate relationship.”
Ansari is currently doing readings and speaking to potential actors and collaborators. He says he feels energised by returning to the basics of filmmaking, without the pressures of hoisting a ‘project’.
“Saleti is a film that can only be made in the independent setup. Presently I have a screenplay in hand, which I feel is the biggest battle won. Right now there are no actors attached, no conventional producers or studios. I am going out on a limb and not worrying about where financing will come from. I am riding on pure belief this time.”
Ansari has previously directed the shorts Sisak (2017) and Sheer Qorma (2021), both soft-hued explorations of queerness in an Indian context. Bun Tikki, per its official synopsis, follows a seven-year-old boy grappling with self-discovery amid societal challenges, while his father, played by Abhay Deol, ‘navigates grief and societal pressures as a single parent’.
While not commenting on the delayed release of Bun Tikki, Ansari reiterates his faith and pride in the film’s final shape.
“I’ve never said this on the record before, but I can take a bullet for Bun Tikki because I’m so proud of that film. I’ve never felt this way about any of my previous works. It’s a film I made after both my parents passed away, so it’s deeply personal to me. Without sounding too full of myself, I genuinely feel that whenever it does come out, it’s going to transform everyone who sees it. It will change the way people think about who they are, who they love, and how they see those relationships.”