Naseeruddin Shah & Gurvinder Singh Channel Real Tragedy Into 'Rehmat'

Filmmaker Gurvinder Singh and actor Naseeruddin Shah's new film Rehmat didn't just use a village house as a set. The family living there became part of the film's actual gravity when their 19-year-old son died from a drug overdose shortly after Singh first connected with them for the project.

That kind of real loss shapes everything. Singh and his crew didn't turn away—they moved forward knowing what had happened, letting that family's actual pain inform the work. The film's now competing at Locarno, and Singh is clear about why this matters: these stories need witnesses. These films need to exist.

There's a difference between exploitation and documentation, between using tragedy as backdrop and honoring it as truth. Rehmat seems to understand that line. It's a reminder that cinema at its best doesn't shy away from the hardest parts of living—it sits with them, witnesses them, and maybe helps the rest of us understand we're not alone in the breaking.

Read the full story at Variety → https://variety.com/2026/film/festivals/naseeruddin-shah-gurvinder-singh-rehmat-locarno-1236830761/