Netflix Will Release Gitanjali Rao’s ‘Bombay Rose’ Worldwide This Fall

Bombay Rose, an Indian-European co-production that turned heads on its festival run, is coming to Netflix. The streaming platform will release the feature worldwide in Q4 of this year. The exceptions are France, where Netflix will launch the film in 2021, and China, where the company doesn’t operate.

The film, which was written, designed, and directed by Gitanjali Rao, (literally) paints an intricate portrait of a complex city. Watch the trailer and read the official synopsis below:

Escaping from child marriage, a young club dancer living in the streets of Bombay must choose between fending for her family and finding love with a boy orphaned by the militancy. Painted frame by frame and woven delicately through music, a red rose brings together three tales of impossible loves. Love between a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy. Love between two women. Love of an entire city for its Bollywood stars. Based on true events, the film explores the ruthlessness of a society where the love and life that reigns on the big screen can crush you in its mean streets.

Last year, the film, which took six years to make, opened the Critics’ Week sidebar at the Venice Film Festival. It went on to play Toronto and London, and won prizes in Chicago and Mumbai. In his review for Cartoon Brew, Carlos Aguilar wrote: “Translating Mumbai, with all its intricacies, into animation is itself a tall order. To anchor this idiosyncratic animated version of the city in layered, if sometimes convoluted, storytelling reflects the talent involved.”

Rao was previously know for her short animated films Printed Rainbow (2006) and TrueLoveStory (2014), which won at Cannes and played at many other festivals. Speaking about Bombay Rose to Variety, she said:

Wishfully thinking I’d love to believe that this will set a precedent in a kind of animation film never seen before but easy to digest, enjoy, recommend, and revisit again after a few years. Maybe make people more open to Indian stories in animation not restricted to mythology or fantasy or superheroes. Stories about common people that work for all ages and stages as well as class of people.

India’s Cinestaan Film Company co-produced the film with France’s Les Films d’Ici. Anand Mahindra and Rohit Khattar of Cinestaan produced. The animation was done by Mumbai-based Paperboat Design Studios.