Producer Guneet Monga launched Karthik Subbaraj’s film Dorothy at the Toronto International Film Festival to spark a global conversation rather than rely on traditional city tours. Drawing on her journey from That Girl in Yellow Boots to Gangs of Wasseypur and Lunchbox, she frames festivals as strategic platforms for worldwide distribution, cultural dialogue and long-term audience engagement.
Toronto International Film Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals, witnessed the launch of Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy on September 12, 2026. And producer Guneet Monga, who has always known the value of festivals, premiered the film at TIFF with precise intentions.
Subbaraj's tenth feature, Dorothy is a Tamil-language drama starring Keerthy Suresh, Sananth and Rishikanth, with music by veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja. Set in rural Tamil Nadu in the early 1990s, the film follows childhood friends Karthi and Subbu, whose lives are upended after tragedy befalls Dorothy (Keerthy Suresh), a woman who always treated them with gentleness.
Speaking of her association with film festivals over time, Monga told The Hollywood Reporter India: "It's a very nuanced situation. When I started out in 2010 with That Girl in Yellow Boots, that was more art house, more about storytelling. But in my heart I knew we really broke out with Gangs of Wasseypur.“
That evolution, Monga said, has come with its own anxieties. Recalling the reaction in India when Gangs of Wasseypur travelled internationally, she said the fear at the time was about piracy: "What's a conversation like that in India? It was like, oh my God, the film will get leaked."
Monga’s stars align with festivals and she says it has always paid off well. Elaborating on the topic, she says, "The festivals, for us, are just the huddle house”, pointing to the 5-and-a-half-hour cut of Gangs of Wasseypur that played at Cannes as proof of how far that huddle can travel. "It played so well, it propelled the whole festival into having a conversation about it. The gumchaas went viral, and this is the thing that happens when cross-culture conversation happens. And for us, we have seen the benefits of that. Movies like The Lunchbox and Gangs of Wasseypur have become mainstream in the West. Festivals now are about wider experiences, not just art house."
According to Monga, the same mentality was employed for designing the approach for the festival run of Dorothy. TIFF, she says, was a platform for entering the wider world. “You have to design a strategy for your festival whether you are targeting it to win awards? Is it your launch for a commercial release? Or is it the launch for a wider global distribution? Just like Kill and The Lunchbox, where we were targeting global distribution directly.”
However, that strategic clarity didn't take away from the gratitude of the selection itself. "We were so incredibly grateful for getting selected at TIFF, but this was definitely a plan for marketing and launching the film, so instead of doing promotions in cities, we took the film to Toronto, we ventured around and started having global conversations about the film," Monga said.
For Monga, that approach is ultimately about building something bigger than a single release. "You know, one has to think how do you build a movement, a wider cultural conversation. We are sitting here and having this conversation because Dorothy was there in Toronto. You already had a great perception that expanded the horizon and the footprints," she said.
Backed by Jio Studios and Guneet Monga Kapoor's Sikhya Entertainment, the film had its world premiere at TIFF's Centrepiece section on September 12, marking the first Tamil feature to screen at the festival in a decade, and went on to receive a standing ovation. Dorothy is currently playing in theaters across India.