At the center of the film 'Selvi' is a homecare nurse whose workday ranges from 12 hours to 72.
This is the first full-length movie by Tamil filmmaker Sailesh Rathnakumar, which is showing in the Busan International Film Festival's Vision-Asia section.
Anjali Patil plays the main character and produces the film through her company Anahat Films.
Rathnakumar wrote the story with cinematographer Bargav Sridhar, and Sreekar Prasad edited the film.
Selvi wants to become a nurse and work in Singapore.
When her childhood friend Kavitha tries to take her own life, Selvi takes over her shifts on top of her own.She spends her days going between private homes, taking care of families who don't really know her.
Rathnakumar says, "For someone like Selvi, a crisis doesn't come as a single big event.
It builds up through long working hours, extra duties, and small sacrifices that finally become too much to handle."
The story's structure developed as Selvi's work hours increased from 12 to 24, 48, and then 72 hours.
As time passes, Selvi is always helping others, leaving her less and less time for herself.
The film begins with Selvi and her friends flying kites on a beach, before moving into home settings where her world becomes smaller.
Rathnakumar explains, "I wanted to show the possibility of looking up, of imagining something more than the immediate situation of one's life, through the kites."
The production took time to find homes that looked lived-in and showed the class of the families living there.
Rathnakumar says, "Selvi is essential to a family's daily life, but is never treated as part of the family itself."
Most of the nurses the director has met have come from rural areas to the cities for work.
He sees a hierarchy within the care industry, where some workers have the training and ability to go abroad, while others are stuck in unsecure jobs that are both personal and demanding with little recognition.
Since Sridhar was involved in writing the script, the camera plan was planned from the beginning.
The film follows only Selvi's point of view, and the audience learns things only when she does.
Prasad joined the project at the script stage.
During their first meeting, the editor pointed out scenes that could be removed without hurting the story, which saved time and money, Rathnakumar says.The director still shot those scenes, but none made the final cut.
Rathnakumar studied at the Prague Film School and started his career doing sound and music for veteran Indian editor B.
Lenin.
For Patil, Selvi's habit of putting her own plans on hold was a personal experience.
After finishing her postgraduate studies in design and direction at the National School of Drama in 2010, she started acting and became a key income for her family.She launched Anahat Films in 2021 with plans to write and direct, but spent the first five years producing for other filmmakers.
Patil says, "Our ambitions grow like fungi around our circumstances.
Also, in Indian culture, this behavior is celebrated.Putting others first to the point of total exhaustion.We are surrounded by so many Selvis, both men and women."
The filming couldn't be done in order and was organized by location instead.
Patil kept track of her own makeup, hair, body, and voice as Selvi's health declined, using continuity photos and long rehearsals with the actors.She says, "I love being that human thermostat for the film."
Wearing both acting and producing hats came at a cost.
The final scene was shot on Marina Beach at the end of a tough day, in a very short window of time.Patil was worried about whether the production could afford to return if they missed the window, and by the last take, the light had gone.Rathnakumar and Sridhar told her they had what they needed, but she wasn't satisfied.
"I remember walking away quickly from Marina Beach, crying because I was so frustrated, and hiding from the team.
I was thinking that, as a producer, I couldn’t even afford to take the time needed for the final close-up shot of the film," Patil says.
The actor, who has worked in films like "Naa Bangaaru Talli," "Newton," and "Kaala," also co-produced "The Moogai," which was shown at Sundance in 2024, and "The Shadowbox," which played at Berlin in 2025.
"Selvi" was presented as a work-in-progress at the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum in March and received support from the Red Sea Fund.
Patil says international funding involves long waits, complicated contracts, and co-production treaties.
Indian filmmakers end up competing for the same grants as professionals from wealthier countries."There’s already an undisclosed gap right there that no one talks about," she says."And honestly, a lot of the time, I feel people still don’t know how to distribute independent Indian films in many parts of the world."
Rathnakumar points to character-driven Tamil films like "Maharaja," "Meiyazhagan," "Vaazhai," and "Lubber Pandhu," which found audiences alongside big star films like "Amaran." "I think the challenge for independent cinema isn’t whether audiences want to watch these films, but whether the films can actually reach them," he says.
Patil, who has worked in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, and Tamil cinema, says Tamil filmmaking has made space for independent voices in the past two to three years, calling it "very, very hopeful for all of us."
Next up, Rathnakumar is producing Patil's feature film "Average Girl," the short film "Florescence," and Sridhar's directing project "Goliath." He is also developing "Uneventful Death of Mr.
Srinivasan," a comedy about a family whose celebrations turn into mourning when a 70-year-old man dies a day after his Bheema Radha Shanthi ceremony.
Meanwhile, Patil plans to step away from Busan to work full-time on a speculative sci-fi script she has been developing for six years.
"I won’t be postponing my ambitions like I did with Selvi," she says.
