In the run-up to WIFF Mumbai 2026, The Daily Eye brings you the unmissable conversations of 2025—when dialogue became the beating heart of five extraordinary days of cinema, ideas, debate and discovery.

Kabeer Khurana joins Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and Rajesh Mapuskar at WIFF Mumbai 2025 for a candid conversation on storytelling, streaming platforms, artistic choices and the rapidly changing landscape of Indian cinema.  

These conversation was among a series hosted during WIFF Mumbai 2025, in partnership with the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies and The Daily Eye.  

Filmmaker Kabeer Khurana was in conversation with actor, singer, writer and painter Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and filmmaker Rajesh Mapuskar at the inaugural Waterfront Indie Film Festival (WIFF) Mumbai 2025, in a wide-ranging discussion on creative careers, storytelling, changing filmmaking practices, technology, OTT platforms and opportunities within the Indian entertainment industry.  

Opening the discussion, Khurana drew attention to the multidisciplinary careers of both speakers and asked whether their movement between different creative forms was deliberate or instinctive.

Krishnamoorthy described her choices as being driven by artistic curiosity rather than conventional career planning. “If you’re an artist who’s in it for the love of the arts, it’s difficult to stay restrained to what is expected of you,” she said. “You go where your heart takes you.” She summed up her approach as “a passion approach rather than an ambition approach.”

Mapuskar, whose work has ranged from advertising and feature films to streaming series, described himself simply as “an explorer”. “I don’t know what I wanted to do in my life. I still don’t know what I want to do in my life,” he said, explaining how opportunities had led him from one form of filmmaking to another.

His career has moved between the warm, slice-of-life worlds of Ferrari Ki Sawaari and Ventilator and the procedural territory of Delhi Crime Season 2. Instead of approaching these shifts as calculated career moves, Mapuskar said his response to new opportunities has generally been: “What can I do with it?”

Khurana related this to his own approach to creativity, describing his philosophy as being in “the pursuit of beauty and poetry, rather than the pursuit of money or any kind of material success”.

Influences That Shape An Artist  

The discussion also examined the influences that shape artists. Krishnamoorthy recalled being deeply affected by films as different as Bhumika, Bobby and The Jungle Book. Speaking about taking up painting at 30, she remembered worrying that she had started too late until her art teacher reminded her that Rabindranath Tagore began painting much later. “I think it’s never too late to do anything that you want to explore,” she said, “and just have the courage to follow.”

Asked whether a recognisable sensibility connected her work across acting, writing, music and painting, Krishnamoorthy said she was drawn towards “upliftment and hope and joy”. “I don’t like darkness,” she said. “I think there’s enough darkness in everybody’s life to not bring it out in your art.”

Mapuskar, meanwhile, spoke about the relationship between personality and filmmaking. Responding to Khurana’s observation that Ferrari Ki Sawaari and Ventilator successfully combined humour with emotion, the filmmaker said this was not something he consciously constructed. “I can’t craft it,” Mapuskar said. “I laugh, I’m funny, I get emotional, I cry, I do everything. I think something of my personality rubs into the stories I want to tell.”

Technology Opens New Creative Doors

Technology and streaming have brought more significant changes. Mapuskar recalled aspiring filmmakers collecting leftover film stock simply to shoot a short film. Today, inexpensive digital technology means, as he put it, “I can take an iPhone, I can shoot something,” allowing filmmakers to demonstrate their abilities without waiting for traditional access.

He also pointed to the expansion of stories beyond the conventional hero-heroine format, creating opportunities for more actors, languages, genres and protagonists. “I think it’s a great, great time for the film industry,” he said.  

Krishnamoorthy was more guarded about streaming. While acknowledging its initial promise of democratisation, she argued that familiar patterns of groupism had begun reappearing. Nevertheless, she maintained that more platforms were necessary because wider access represented “the true democracy”.

WIFF Mumbai Conversations Continue  

This conversation is the first in The Daily Eye’s presentation of recordings from WIFF Mumbai 2025, documenting discussions that brought together filmmakers, actors, writers and cultural practitioners during the festival.

The series, presented in partnership with the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies, will continue in the coming weeks as a precursor to the announcement of WIFF Mumbai 2026.

Watch the complete conversation with Kabeer Khurana, Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and Rajesh Mapuskar below.