Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Richard Linklater, known for classics such as Boyhood and the Before trilogy, will virtually attend the India premiere of his film How to Not Have Sex. Linklater is the executive producer of the Indian film, which is an official remake of the director’s own American camcorder drama Tape (2001). How Not To Have Sex will premiere at the IFP Festival (formerly India Film Project) on October 24, 2026, followed by a panel discussion with the film’s team and a virtual session with Linklater.
Speaking about attending the film’s India premiere, Linklater stated, “It’s always great to see how a story travels across cultures, and I am happy to see that Tape has found this new life in India as How to Not Have Sex. I look forward to meeting the audience virtually at IFP.”
Made in 2001 with a star cast that included Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard, Tape is a real-time drama that was made on a low budget of $100,000 by Richard Linklater. It was primarily set in a single location. Apart from Linklater, John Sloss and Stephen Belber also serves as executive producers on the Indian film. Belber previously wrote the screenplay for Tape, as well as the original play on which the film was based.
How Not To Have Sex is directed by Sudharshan Narayanan and produced by Anshulika Dubey. It marks the directorial debut of Sudharshan Narayanan and stars Aakash Prabhakar, Nishank Verma and Amrita Bagchi, known for her role in Safed Sagar.
“The Indian adaptation reimagines the chamber drama for a contemporary Indian audience, retaining its intimate, real-time confrontation while bringing a distinct perspective to questions of consent, memory, gender and accountability,” an official press note read. Most recently, the film was part of the official selection of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF). The film’s themes include consent and sex.
The film’s producer, Anshulika Dubey, has worked as a co-producer on Tamil films such as Mandela (2021) and Sethum Aayiram Pon (2019) as part of her previous company, Wishberry Films. She was also a co-producer of the Assamese film Aamis (2019).