Ever since her debut in Dev. D (2009), Kalki Koechlin has never made an obvious choice. She has built a filmography that moves between commercial hits like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, and critically acclaimed performances in Margarita with a Straw, Waiting and A Death in the Gunj.
It’s a body of work defined not by scale, but by curiosity: complex, vulnerable, independent women, told without apology, on screen and on stage. The same curiosity shows up in what she watches. Here, she shares five films that stayed with her — spanning three languages, 80 years, and one Oscar win.
“This black and white French film about the theatre is a classic, it’s beautifully done,” Koechlin says of Marcel Carnés sprawling romance, set in the theatrical world of 1830s Paris, and built around a story of a courtesan pursued by four different men. For Koechlin, whose own career has moved fluidly between stage and screen, the film’s pull runs deeper than admiration. “I think it also influenced my desire to do theatre,” she says.
“I love Pyaasa. It was one of the first Guru Dutt films that I saw,” she says. The film — a meditation on a disillusioned Urdu poet, and among the most celebrated films in Indian cinema — was directed and produced by Guru Dutt, who also essays the lead role. The film also stars Waheeda Rehman, Mala Sinha, Rehman and Johnny Walker. It’s the music, though, that undoes her every time. “The songs make me weep every time I hear them,” she says. “The movie is so beautiful.”
Koechlin describes herself as a “huge fan” of filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, and Maqbool — his Shakespearen gangster drama set against Mumbai’s underworld — sits at the top of the list. “He’s so fantastic. And one of my favourites is his film Maqbool. I love Tabu,” she says. Bhardwaj’s retelling of Macbeth is anchored by Irrfan Khan and Tabu, with Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri rounding out a formidable supporting cast.
Michel Gondry’s romantic drama in which a couple — played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet — choose to erase each other from memory after their relationship ends, occupies a singular place in Koechlin’s Hollywood favourites. “I just think it’s such a beautiful concept,” she says. “This idea that, even if you know your own future, you can’t help but try again. You keep wanting the same things, even though you know it’s doomed. That sense of hope that the film has is very beautiful.”
Koechlin’s most recent pick also happens to be the most decorated: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which won Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Academy Awards. The film follows two sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) as they reunite with their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). “It’s just fabulous,” Koechlin says. “So interesting. So subtle and beautiful.”