London-based Kolkata-born chef, filmmaker and television presenter Shrimoyee Chakraborty, known for hosting Apple TV’s India Bites, is set to make her feature directorial debut with Spirit of the Wildflower, a documentary about two tribal siblings running India’s first legal mahua distillery in Madhya Pradesh’s Bastar region.
The film is headed to the 2026 edition of the Marché du Film, which will take place on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival from May 12 to May 20.
Speaking to My Kolkata, Chakraborty said the project began during her research on India’s “forbidden drinks” and underrepresented communities. That search led her to siblings Ankita and Veenu, who run the distillery deep inside Bastar.
“I knew this was my story,” she said. “That was four years ago and now I’m headed to Marché du Film with my feature directorial debut.”
“Set in Kathiwada, Madhya Pradesh, Spirit of the Wildflower presents a fight that is at once local and global, tribal and universal. As a woman, I believe it is vital that we tell these stories ourselves,” said Chakraborty.
The documentary follows Ankita, who is in her early 20s and is fiercely ambitious about the distillery, and her younger sibling Veenu, who hopes to earn enough money to transition to a boy.
“It’s not just about a drink made by women in the heartland,” Chakraborty explained. “The film explores identity, gender, non-conformity and rebellion. This is cinema as both a mirror and an act of resistance.”
Shot over three years, the documentary took the crew deep into remote forest regions where they faced logistical hurdles, lack of accommodation and occasional security threats.
“Sometimes we needed police protection because our crew was primarily women. Once, while we were shooting in Kathiwada village, a bus was burnt down. It’s a Naxal-infested zone,” Chakraborty recalled.
Behind the scenes at the set of ‘Spirit of the Wildflower’
Despite the challenges, she describes the experience as transformative. “I went looking for fixers and found two of the most extraordinary human beings I’ve ever encountered. That’s what documentaries do — they take you into lives you would never have found otherwise. It’s fantastic.”
Chakraborty thanked IS officer Dipali Rastogi for her unwavering support during the shooting of the documentary.
Ankita and Veenu ahead of the documentary’s Soho House premiere in Mumbai
Tabernacle Street Films and Adyah Films are presenting the project in association with co-producer Featuristic Films. Produced by Shrimoyee Chakraborty and Om Singh, the documentary’s executive producers are Keshav Suri, Parno Mittra, Radhika Piramal and Neeraj Churi. Cinematography is by Rusha Bose, while editing has been handled by Joydip Das, Anadi Athaley and Vedant Joshi. The music is composed by Angad Uday, with sound design by Sukrit Sen. Post-production has been completed by Studio Mimeses, in association with Bridge Postworks (the team associated with the Oscar-winning film The Elephant Whisperers) and the Madhya Pradesh Government.
Chakraborty said that she is currently eyeing an international release for Spirit of the Wildflower. “We screened it for a select audience at Mumbai’s Soho House. We plan to release it in Indian theatres following its international release,” she said, adding that the documentary is also a “love letter” to her daughter. “I hope to bring her up in a world that honours difference instead of disrespecting it,” the filmmaker concluded.
