EXCLUSIVE: Mira Nair has revealed a first look of her next feature, Amri, inspired by the life and art of Amrita Sher-Gil, a pioneer in India’s modern art world, whose bold aesthetic shook up the establishment during her lifetime and continues to be valued in art circles around the world today.
The ensemble cast features Anjali Sivaraman as Amrita Sher-Gil, alongside Emily Watson as her mother, Marie-Antoinette Gottesman; Jaideep Ahlawat as her father, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil; Krisztián Csákvári as Victor Egan; Anjana Vasan as Indira Sher-Gil; Jim Sarbh as Karl Khandalavala, and Priyanka Chopra-Jonas as Madame Azurie.
Set across Hungary, France and India in the early 20th century, the film traces the worlds of Europe and India that shaped Sher-Gil’s imagination and her artistic vision. The film wraps production this week after filming across locations in India and Europe.
Priyanka Chopra-Jonas also serves as an Executive Producer on the film.
For Mira Nair, Amri is also a deeply personal film. Sher-Gil’s work has been impactful on the filmmaker’s visual imagination, and the film reflects a connection that is both artistic and profoundly felt.
Talking about Amri, Mira Nair shared: “Every film I’ve made in the last several decades has been inspired by the art of Amrita Sher-Gil. She taught me how to see. She absorbed the best European training to distill the soul of India in a way that no one ever had — it is this distillation that has informed my own cinema from the beginning. The bravery of her palette, color and framing of the ordinary people of India has eternally moved me.”
Amri explores her coming of age as both an artist and a woman, her restless search for selfhood, her defiance of convention even to the point of scandal in her love life, and her determination to create a visual language entirely her own.
The youngest student to ever be admitted in the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris, educated and trained in the conventions of European tradition, Amrita evolved a personal aesthetic that highlighted the everyday life of ordinary women and men in India. This was a radical aesthetic breakthrough that later shaped Mira’s own sensibility.
The producers also explained that the film explores how an extraordinarily creative person comes to see India and its people on their own terms, not filtered through European or conventional perspectives: “As such, it’s about seeing and being seen, and that is its universal relevance”.
Producer Samudrika Arora commented further on the film: “Amrita Sher-Gil’s life and oeuvres reflect the aspirations of the modern generation, where identity and unapologetic self-expression meet. There is something deeply human in the tension of coming from two wildly different worlds — the challenge of belonging to both, and never entirely to either. What moved me to make this film is how Amri carried the best of each world within her, and not lose herself in the space between them. It is a privilege to bring this story to fruition alongside Mira, whose craft for telling crosscultural stories is unparalleled.”
Producer Michael Nozik added: “While the film is set between the two World Wars, Amrita is a character out of time and before her time – she is a true visionary artist and social revolutionary, her life story a beacon of inspiration. With Mira’s direction, Anjali’s performance of Amrita seizes that spirit of youthful curiosity and rebellion.”
Major exhibitions of Amrita Sher-Gil’s work are planned across the world for 2027 starting in Paris, moving to Los Angeles, Doha and finally in New Delhi where a permanent exhibition is planned.
Amri is directed by Mira Nair, who also co-wrote the film with Clara Royer. The film is produced by Samudrika Arora, Michael Nozik and Mira Nair through Mirabai, Samscape, and Papertown Production in association with KNMA and Miramax.