Mohammad Ali Baig’s debut film brings the Qutub Shahi dynasty to the Cannes Film Festival

For years, Hyderabad-born theatre personality and Padma Shri awardee, Mohammad Ali Baig has built worlds out of forgotten histories. Through theatre productions steeped in the cultural memory of the plateau, the playwright, actor and director has consistently revisited the stories of Hyderabad’s past — not as dusty chapters from history books, but as living, breathing narratives of resistance, dignity and art. Now, with Chand Tara: The Legend of Taramati, his first feature film, Baig took that world to the global stage, with the premiere of the film’s trailer at the Cannes Film Festival’s India Pavilion on the French Riviera.

Hyderabad-born theatre maestro and Padma Shri awardee Mohammad Ali Baig premiere’s the trailer of his debut feature film — Chand Tara: The Legend of Taramati at the Cannes Film Festival 2026

The film, made in association with Telangana Tourism, is based on the life of Taramati, the legendary 17th-century singer associated with the Qutub Shahi era. But Baig is quick to point out that what drew him to her story was precisely the fact that she did not fit into the familiar moulds history often reserves for women.

“My first play was on Taramati, along with the tourism department, and now my first film, incidentally, is also on Taramati, again with the tourism department,” says Baig. “It’s a very interesting story because Taramati was neither a queen nor a courtesan. She was a very dignified singer who refused to go to the Sultan’s court.”

For Baig, whose work has long revolved around heritage-oriented storytelling, especially narratives rooted in Deccan and south Indian history, Taramati’s life represented something larger than a historical anecdote. “We talk of women’s emancipation today, we talk of gender equality today. I think 17th-century Hyderabad showed that to the world,” he says. “On one hand, there was the cosmopolitanism and syncretic fabric of our culture, and on the other hand, there were strong women like Hayat Bakshi Begum, who thwarted the Mughal invasion four times without raising a sword; artistes like Taramati and Premamati who also held their own.”

That idea — of women occupying space with agency, intellect and artistic integrity — runs through much of Baig’s body of work. “Most of my work has been women-oriented,” he says. “It’s nice to have women as heroes of the story and not just men.”

In Chand Tara, that philosophy manifests through a deeply researched recreation of the Qutub Shahi era. From architecture and costumes to music, language and performance, Baig approached the film with the same obsession for detail that has characterised his theatre productions for decades. For him, authenticity is not simply an aesthetic choice but an ethical one.

“For me, as a filmmaker, it’s very important to have ethics in place,” he says. “Maintaining authenticity on stage and screen while you are doing a period play or period film is part of professional ethics. You can’t be wrong or uneducated on things.”

Research, Baig says, has been part of his upbringing. The son of legendary theatre personality Qadir Ali Baig, he grew up around historical archives, rehearsals and productions that revisited the Qutub Shahi, Asaf Jahi, Rajput and Mughal periods. “All of my father’s research and my own in the past 20 years came in handy,” he says. “I’m very much at ease with these subjects.”

That familiarity also extends to the technicalities of filmmaking. Baig describes himself as a director who keeps “a pulse on all departments of theatre and cinema” — from art and music to costumes, jewellery, performances and cinematography. “I’ve grown up like that,” he says. “Even in action, I have a hand in every department.”

Still, the challenge lies in balancing historical precision with cinematic storytelling. “One has to be ethical and authentic, but you can take little cinematic liberties and creative freedom,” he explains. “You have to be true to the characters and the era. Pure honesty plays a very important role in what you’re doing.”

Music, unsurprisingly, forms the emotional spine of Chand Tara. The film features music by Karthik Illaiyaraja, with vocals by Lucky Ali and Vasundhara Das among others. Baig describes the score as a lyrical extension of the Qutub Shahi world itself. “The whole film is very lyrical and poetic because the entire era was that,” he says. “Right from the fourth Qutub Shahi king to Tana Shah, they were all poets and connoisseurs of art.”

Working closely with Karthik Illaiyaraja, Baig immersed himself not just in melodies but in historical soundscapes. “I even researched the ragas and musical instruments which were popular back then,” he says. “Since there’s a lot of Persian influence, we used Persian instruments, and because Taramati herself belonged to the south Indian cultural space, we used those instruments and ragas too. It’s a nice confluence.”

One of the film’s tracks, Tanana Thak Thak, captures a lighter emotional beat — a joyous moment between Taramati and the dancer Premamati. “It’s a girly, playful song when Premamati realises Taramati is falling for the Sultan and has let her guard down,” Baig says with a laugh. “Then they break into dance on the terrace while it’s about to rain.”

The collaborative process behind the film also brought together artistes from across industries and generations. Alongside actors like Anupam Kher and Mohan Agashe, Baig assembled a team that included cinematographer Mahi P Reddy, editor Manish Jaitley, and costume designer Vinita Pitti. “It’s important for me that I trust them to deliver what I want,” he says. “And it’s important for them to trust me for what I’m expecting of them.”

For Baig, however, large-scale period productions are less stressful than they are instinctive. “If theatre or film doesn’t have all these challenges, then it’s not theatre or cinema for me,” he says. “The more challenging a production is — with its aesthetics, décor, jewellery, music, art — the easier it is for me to do it. That’s what I’ve grown up watching my father do.”

That inheritance, though, comes with pressure. Baig speaks candidly about carrying forward a legacy associated with Hyderabad’s theatre culture and historical storytelling traditions. “There’s a huge expectation,” he says. “When you announce a production, people look forward to it, so, there’s always that burden of responsibility.”

Transitioning from theatre to cinema has only intensified that responsibility. “Having come from this genre of work in theatre, now to cinema, I need to be doubly careful,” he says. “This is a huge legacy. It’s sacrosanct. I can’t take many chances with it.”

Yet the journey to international stages is not entirely unfamiliar terrain for him. Several of Baig’s productions, including Quli: Dilon Ka Shahzada and 1857: Turrebaz Khan, have travelled to global festivals, with performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Oxford University among others. For Baig, taking rooted stories abroad has always been deeply personal.

“Every time I take my own heritage and culture abroad, it’s a fulfilling feeling,” he says. “Because I’m not taking something western or something outside our culture. I’m taking south Indian culture, Indian heritage.”

More than artistic validation, he sees these platforms as opportunities to introduce audiences to overlooked histories. “Scholars working on south Asian history came up to us after 1857: Turrebaz Khan and said, ‘Thank you for bringing this to our notice. We didn’t know this existed,’” he recalls. “At Oxford University too, when we presented the Qutub Shahi dynasty, they were amazed. So, you’re not just taking theatre or cinema abroad, you’re taking pages of history.”

That journey has now culminated in Chand Tara reaching Cannes Film Festival. According to Baig, the trailer was noticed during a screening for officials from NFDC (National Film Development Corporation of India) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, who insisted the film needed an international platform. “They said, ‘This should be at Cannes Film Festival since it’s right around the corner,’” he recalls.

The trailer screening itself is being treated as a standalone event at the India Pavilion by the riverside on the French Riviera, attended by filmmakers, distributors and actors from around the world. For Baig, however, the larger hope is that audiences unfamiliar with south Indian history still find an emotional connection to the story. “Whenever I approach history and heritage in my plays, the presentation is always modern and contemporary,” he says. “Why should today’s audiences sit through a story from the 16th or 17th century unless they connect with it?”

That connection, he believes, is what has sustained his theatre productions for years, with audiences returning to watch the same plays multiple times. “Theatre, cinema, television — these are visual mediums. They have to connect with people,” he says.

And that remains his hope for Chand Tara too — not simply that it is admired for its period detailing or visual scale, but that audiences recognise something emotionally familiar within it. “It’s a very well-crafted film in all its departments,” Baig says. “It’s a nice story to be told. And it’s told in a way where the sensibilities of today’s audiences are taken care of, without compromising on ethics, aesthetics or authenticity.”

Chand Tara: The Legend of Taramati releases in theatres across India in June.

Email: isha.p@newindianexpress.com

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