'Dhurandhar' and 'Kantara' Lead IFFI Goa's Indian Panorama 2026

Aditya Dhar's Hindi-language "Dhurandhar" will open the Indian Panorama section of the 57th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. Rishab Shetty's Kannada-language "Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1" joins it in a 45-film lineup announced for the festival's annual survey of Indian filmmaking.

The selection presents 25 features and 20 non-features this year. Leena Yadav's "Becoming," in Ladakhi, will kick off the non-feature program.

How were the films chosen?

A 12-member jury chaired by National Film Award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar picked the features from 404 submissions. The 20 titles outside the mainstream strand cover 12 languages, from Hindi, Tamil and Bengali to Tulu and Nyishi. Among them are Kamakhya Narayan Singh's "The Kerala Story 2 Goes Beyond," Bharatbala Ganapathy's "Banaras," Akhil Sathyan's Malayalam film "Sarvam Maya," P. Sheshadri's Kannada title "Ruby-Cube" and Singeetham Srinivasa Rao's Telugu feature "Sing Geetham." Sahil Shah's "Birds on Ice," in Ladakhi, and Duyu Tabyo's Nyishi-language "Urum" also made the cut.

On the non-feature side, a six-member jury led by director and educator Himanshu Sekhar Khatua whittled 358 entries down to 20. Picks include Bhasker Vishwanathan's "The Unseen Holy River – Saraswati," Aimee Baruah's Assamese film "Red Carpet," Suraj Kumar's English-language "Nirmanjali: The Chandigarh of Maciej Nowicki" and Baba Tassaduq Hussain's Kashmiri title "Naqsh-e-Daur."

"Dhurandhar" and "Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1" both sit in the five-title Mainstream Cinema strand. They are joined by Samir Tewari's Marathi "Baapya," Anil Ravipudi's Telugu "Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu (Pandaga Ki Vastunnamu)" and Pravin Vitthal Tarde's "Deool Band 2," also in Marathi.

What about the debut director race?

Bhandarkar's jury also shortlisted five films for IFFI's best debut director of an Indian feature film award:

• "Chennai Love Story" (Telugu), dir. Ravi Varma Namburi
• "Pratyabartan" (Bengali), dir. Samarpan Sengupta
• "Tighi" (Marathi), dir. Jeejivisha Kale
• "Sledge" (Kashmiri), dir. Raja Shabir Mohd Khan
• "Hanuman Ansh" (Hindi), dir. Vishal Chaturvedi

The festival has also named five nominees for its best web series prize.

The full feature lineup

• "Paro – The Untold Story of Bride Slavery" (Hindi), dir. Gajendra Ahire
• "Laalo – Krishna Sada Sahaayate" (Gujarati), dir. Ankit Bhupatbhai Sakhiya
• "The Kerala Story 2 Goes Beyond" (Hindi), dir. Kamakhya Narayan Singh
• "Krishnavataram" (Hindi), dir. Hardik Gajjar
• "Birds on Ice" (Ladakhi), dir. Sahil Shah
• "Scroll" (Tamil), dir. Kannan S
• "Pagla Ghora" (Bengali), dir. Sekhar Das
• "Aadi Anant" (Marathi), dir. Mahesh Limaye
• "Urum" (Nyishi), dir. Duyu Tabyo
• "Banaras" (Hindi), dir. Bharatbala Ganapathy
• "Kabir Sir Ka Akhri Lesson" (Hindi), dir. Sarfaraz
• "Sing Geetham" (Telugu), dir. Singeetham Srinivasa Rao
• "Ohh My Dog" (Hindi), dir. Amit Rai
• "Ruby-Cube" (Kannada), dir. P. Sheshadri
• "Sev Micchar" (Hindi), dir. Muskan Asthana
• "Pili Channe" (Tulu), dir. Anupama Sharadhi
• "The Great Grand Superhero Aliens Ka Aagman" (Hindi), dir. Manish Saini
• "Thaai Kizhavi" (Tamil), dir. Sivakumar Murugesan
• "Surjyamukhi" (Assamese), dir. Antara G.G. Choudhury
• "Sarvam Maya" (Malayalam), dir. Akhil Sathyan

The non-feature program

• "The Unseen Holy River – Saraswati" (Hindi), dir. Bhasker Vishwanathan
• "Becoming" (Ladakhi), dir. Leena Yadav
• "Shat-Shat Atal" (Hindi), dir. Atul Pandey
• "The Hug of Emptiness" (Kannada), dir. Pradeep Kumar Shetty K
• "Red Carpet" (Assamese), dir. Aimee Baruah
• "Demography Is Destiny" (Hindi), dir. Kamakhya Narayan Singh and Anshuman Shekhar
• "Echoes of the Last Shelter" (Hindi), dir. Bharat Arora and Rajesh Bhatia
• "Win" (Telugu), dir. Praveen
• "Ulididdu Sampige Maatra" (Kannada), dir. Abhishek
• "Nirmanjali: The Chandigarh of Maciej Nowicki" (English), dir. Suraj Kumar
• "Shiksha" (Marathi), dir. Amyth Patkar
• "Naqsh-e-Daur" (Kashmiri), dir. Baba Tassaduq Hussain
• "Chandoba" (Marathi), dir. Nipun Dharmadhikari
• "Abhal-Vriksh" (Marathi), dir. Santosh Davakhar
• "Attappadi" (Tamil), dir. Vijeesh Mani
• "Save the God" (Hindi), dir. Niraj Kumar Mishra
• "Amit Atal" (Hindi), dir. Hitesh Shankar
• "Switch Off" (Malayalam), dir. Sandeep Francis
• "Chalo Indian With Eric Ji – Mizoram" (English), dir. Rajdeep Choudhury
• "Kathar Katha" (Bengali), dir. Dhritisree Sarkar

What does this change for Indian cinema's visibility? The 2026 Panorama gives premieres to films in languages rarely seen on festival screens, including Nyishi, Tulu and Ladakhi, and places a Kannada blockbuster prequel beside them on the same platform.