Raam Reddy On “Jugnuma - The Fable,” His Organic Filmmaking Process, and Working With the Cast

Jugnuma – The Fable had its world premiere on February 16, 2024, at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it screened in the Encounters segment. That appearance was significant, as it was only the second Indian film in three decades to be part of one of the Berlinale's major competitive sections. The film went on to win the Special Jury Award at the 2024 MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and later made history as the first Indian film to take home the Best Film prize at the 38th Leeds International Film Festival in the UK. It was finally released in India on September 12, 2025. As I walked out of the theater after watching Jugnuma, I was consumed by a strong urge to talk to its director, Raam Reddy. As a film critic, I watch a lot of movies, but I had never before felt the need to reach out to a director immediately after a screening. Over the following weeks, that desire only grew stronger. It became so overwhelming that I finally decided to contact Raam for an interview—and thankfully, he agreed. After speaking with him, my love for Jugnuma, already deep and growing, soared to new heights.

Here are edited excerpts from the interview. You can watch the whole conversation at the bottom of this article.

V: I am so happy I am getting the chance to talk to you because, you know, I really loved Jugnuma. It's not only one of the most beautiful films I've seen this year but also one of the most audacious. In fact, it's my favorite film of the year, and I am not saying this for the sake of ego massage. What you have done is just fantastic. Before we get into the film, I would like to begin by asking you: why was the name of the movie changed from The Fable to Jugnuma – The Fable? Jugnuma is such an interesting word; it sounds like a phenomenon. Who came up with this title, and who came up with that beautiful cursive font?

R: The title was suggested by Ranjan Singh, who heads Flip Films, our distributor. It's such a layered and beautiful title. The Fable was a title that directed you to the right part of the story, but Jugnuma is a made-up word, right? It has many layers to it. The film is also set in a made-up world, from a made-up place, so that sense of fictionality was exciting. And the title is open to interpretation—just like the film. One way to read it is that Jugnu Nama becomes Jugnuma. Beyond that, there are other interpretations. Like Jug is Yug, which means age. It has all these layers, and it's also reminiscent of the light of fireflies. I sometimes think of it as the adverb of the action of the fireflies. So all in all, you see, it's a conversation starter. We are enjoying talking about even the title. I think it was a really fitting choice.

And the font was from the team Warriors Touch, who did the poster design and things like that. They came up with the font. I love the font so much. Even The Fable had a playful font, but this is playful and elegant. It's very beautiful.

V: It is beautiful. Did you have a particular film or director in mind as inspiration while making Jugnuma?

R: There were a few. I think Guillermo del Toro's work was a big inspiration. So, you see, Pan's Labyrinth, which was a very brave film made outside the typical studio system in Spain. At least, it was outside the Hollywood system. It was a fantasy, with all these fantastic creatures. The scale was very beautiful. It was again a very simple story, but it was a story of contrasts. It was very violent and magical at the same time. So, Pan's Labyrinth was one of them.

V: Now that you have mentioned Pan's Labyrinth, I can see where the connection is coming from. That's very interesting. Okay, so I was going through your older interviews to prepare myself for this one, and I also went through the Wikipedia page and all that. I came across the information that you went to the Himalayas, then you were involved in a fire incident, and from there, the story of Jugnuma came to you. Now, this is a somewhat silly question, but I wanted to know: was that a casual trip, or was it made for the sake of getting creative juice for your next film?

R: No, that's a great question. It's actually the second; it was planned. And the fire just happened to have… so I had the intention, the genre, the note, and the emotion of the story, which is usually my starting point. I start from emotion, not from the narrative. Even now, I am starting something new, and I am beginning with emotion. I feel very comfortable starting from an emotion and then seeing where it takes me to discover the narrative. So, that intention was there, and then the fire came. Like things start coming to you, like life gives you guidance. So, yeah, that happened, and many more experiences followed. For example, the house where we shot the first scene—the long shot—was designed based on the house's geography. It's not as if I wrote in the script that there would be a long shot. Before I wrote this script, I realized that this house was perfect for creating a shot that starts in the bedroom and ends at the edge of a cliff. Because the mansion, you know, is at the edge of a cliff. So the house created that idea. My process is very organic like that.

V: You know, I think if you watch a great film, it reveals its greatness within the first five or ten minutes. With Jugnuma, you, of course, have that terrific one-shot sequence. But the scene that really made me sit up and say, "Okay, I am in the presence of a great mind," is the one near the beginning where the whole family is sitting in front of the fire and the daughter requests her mother to sing a song—it's Shivoham, if I am not wrong. When she's singing, in the middle of the song, you do something very interesting—you show a brief glimpse of the future, the fire, and all that. That moment made me go, "Ah, this is going to be a very, very interesting film." Also, when I went to watch Jugnuma, I hadn't seen Thithi, so this was my introduction to you. So I was like, "This Raam Reddy guy, there is something interesting about him." Now, this might be a silly question, but I want to know why you decided to cut to the future.

R: No, I love these questions. In fact, these are some of the best questions I have had so far, because they are the things I am most passionate about within the film itself. I feel like we connected via the movie on those moments. So, that was almost a controversial decision, even within the team, because so much of it is mystery and suspense. But what I felt was that it was a mild premonition. What is she really singing about? She is singing Shivoham, right? So we are not this, we are not this, we are pure consciousness. And within the realm of this consciousness, time and space don't function in the same way as our physical reality. And so, I felt that song was like a symbolic premonition of the truth of the family. When the family is in that cohesive moment, with their eyes closed, it's a sense of the future. So, it was more of an emotional decision. It was also partly a decision not to let people get hooked on narrative logic. You don't want it to become too sequential because the film otherwise builds in a very sequential way. So, I needed to break that to realize that, beyond the story, there is a deeper layer that's just as important. So if you watch the whole film, there's almost like a second film within the film on the subtle layer. It's kind of like our human body, where we have a physical body, but also a subtle body within it. The film has a body in which fires are happening, and within that, there is a subtle body with a different trajectory. So there is a narrative arc of the subtle body as well, and this was that planting. I'm not sure if I did justice to that, because it was just an instinctual thing. I felt like we had to break that obsession with narrative.

V: How easy was it to work with actors like Manoj, Deepak, Priyanka, and others in Jugnuma, and how easy was it to work with the actors of Thithi? What was your experience like when handling two different groups of actors? Was the process the same? Were things easier this time?

R: That's again a complex question. I am not sure how to give an easy, succinct answer, to be honest, because my entire career has been with non-actors. Non-actors have a very natural presence. There are so many stories just within their faces and voices. So I was always thinking, how can I put that on the big screen? The other reason is that, early on, I didn't have access to actors, so it was a practical solution to work with non-actors, as they were more accessible. When I went on that journey, I found it to be extremely challenging because non-actors don't even want to act. So you are on their terms, and now, if you are on their terms, the key is to cast them before you write. Understand them and write in a way that allows them to be themselves. It has to be a line that they can naturally see. The most significant challenge with non-actors is that they often forget their lines entirely. This is why many filmmakers give up on non-actors. If you have long scenes and want them to flow in a certain way, it becomes a greater challenge. Whereas with actors, they come as co-creators. They have their own interpretation of characters; they have processed the backstory, so they are already working with you. Essentially, it's about striking the right note, and it's also largely about mutual trust. You have to trust the actor, and the actor has to trust that you want to optimize their performance. You all are a team. And these actors are among the best I have seen. I am fortunate to have had them as part of my first real experience with professional actors, and I am now a bit spoiled. They are all amazing and incredibly supportive. I was nervous before meeting Manoj ji, but after I met him, and the way he connected with the script and just how he is as a person, he made me feel very safe. He also made me feel confident in my own vision.

You can watch the complete conversation below, and also read our Jugnuma - The Fable Review.