After decades spent as a cult favorite, the Indian film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones is about to get a second life—and this time, it’s in 4K. The Film Heritage Foundation has announced the nationwide theatrical release of its painstaking restoration of the 1989 classic, directed by Pradip Krishen and written by Arundhati Roy. The film, which also features an early screen appearance by Shah Rukh Khan, will hit cinemas across India on March 13, 2026, offering audiences a rare chance to experience a piece of cinematic history on the big screen.
This revival comes on the heels of an emotional and highly acclaimed world premiere in the Classics section at the Berlin International Film Festival, where the restored film received a standing ovation. According to Moneycontrol and News18, the restoration was much more than a technical process—it was a resurrection. As Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director of the Film Heritage Foundation, put it, “It was great to see Pradip Krishen and Film Heritage Foundation’s restoration of ‘In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones’ get a standing ovation at the film’s premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival last week. This was not just a restoration, but a resurrection of a film that had disappeared.”
Originally released in 1989, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones captured the spirit of student life at a Delhi architecture school in the mid-1970s. The film scooped up a National Award and, over the years, built a reputation as a cult classic, partly due to its witty, irreverent take on youth culture and the camaraderie of its cast. But for many years, it languished in obscurity, screened only once late at night on Doordarshan and rarely seen by new generations.
That’s all about to change. The Film Heritage Foundation’s 4K restoration ensures that contemporary audiences can experience the film in its finest possible quality, with screenings planned in 14 cities and 19 cinemas across India. Cities on the roster include Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Hyderabad, and Goa. Special screenings will be held in the presence of director Pradip Krishen, cast and crew members, and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. The Mumbai screening is scheduled for March 13, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. at Inox, Nariman Point, followed by the Delhi screening on March 14, 2026, at PVR Plaza, Connaught Place. Tickets go on sale from March 9, 2026, via BookMyShow and the PVR Cinemas app and website.
For Arundhati Roy, the film’s writer and a key creative force, the restoration is both a personal and communal triumph. She reflected, “If not for the Film Heritage Foundation and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s several years’ long dogged perseverance and stubborn love for the film, and if not for Pradip’s carefully archived material, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones would not have had the opportunity to take a bow in the real world before retiring to a resting place in some dim archive.” Roy’s words capture both the fragility and resilience of independent cinema in India, where many works risk being forgotten without dedicated efforts to preserve them.
But what makes this “small, scrappy little film,” as Roy calls it, so enduring? She offers an answer: “It’s what certain films and books and songs do. And we’ll never really know why. In Annie’s case, I believe it’s because all of us, every single person in the cast and crew, worked on it with joy. Together we were a band, jamming together, jiving to the same drumbeat. There really are no stars. It was all of us. It’s what gives the film its irreverence, its lightness of touch.”
Indeed, the film’s charm lies in its ensemble spirit. Though Shah Rukh Khan’s role was a supporting one—long before he became the king of Bollywood—his presence is a reminder of the film’s place in the history of Indian cinema. The cast, as Roy describes, were not driven by the “cut-throat rat race” or the pressure to accumulate material possessions or social media likes. Instead, they celebrated each other’s quirks, lived by their own rules, and found joy in being “alienated from the grid of what is considered ‘normality.’”
Looking back, Roy sees the film’s ethos as a kind of radical freedom, especially when viewed through the lens of 2026. “Failure is not mocked and frowned upon. They celebrate each other’s foibles and eccentricities. Their language is their own. Their humour is their own. Their sense of fashion is their own. They are free from the pressures of accumulating material possessions or ‘likes’ on social media. They are free from competing with their peers about who has more of what. They live by a different creed: to show off is considered ridiculous. The more ragged they are, the more alienated from the grid of what is considered ‘normality’, the more they are loved, the more fun life seems to be. Viewed through the lens of 2026, that looks like a sort of radical freedom. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones isn’t a manifesto. It’s just a joyful stance.”
For director Pradip Krishen, the film’s return to the public eye is deeply gratifying. He shared, “I walked away from cinema in 1994 because none of the 3 films I had made had been distributed and exhibited and I didn’t think I’d be able to find money to make more films. So it feels like a dream that a small film I’d made in 1988—that was shown just once late at night on Doordarshan—has been beautifully restored by Film Heritage Foundation and premiered in the Classics Section of the Berlinale. What’s even more gratifying for me is that this film is now going to be released in cinemas across India. I’m hugely impressed by the work that Film Heritage Foundation is doing, not just in conserving Indian cinema but restoring films which might otherwise have fallen through the cracks and been forgotten.”
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the foundation’s mission to not only preserve but also share the treasures of Indian cinema: “It reaffirmed our foundation’s commitment not just to preserve and restore films, but to ensure that they reach the public. I am sure that audiences around India will enjoy this irreverent slice of campus life from the ‘70s as did the international audience in Berlin. Given the buzz the film has created already around the world, I know that ‘Annie’ is going to have a wonderful second life—playing in cinemas and festivals in India and around the world.”
The release of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones is more than a nostalgic trip; it’s a celebration of the power of film restoration and the enduring spirit of collaborative creativity. As tickets go on sale and the film prepares to greet a new generation, audiences have a unique opportunity to rediscover a lost gem that speaks as much to today’s world as it did to the era it so lovingly portrayed.