Just weeks after her directorial debut Aasmani, a deeply personal short film about a 60-year-old grandmother and her 10-year-old granddaughter and their precious powder blue fiat, that marked her first outing behind the camera, was selected across ten film festivals on multiple continents within a span of two months, Sayani Gupta’s US feature film debut Arya has added two significant names to its cast.
Ross Butler (Riverdale, 13 Reasons Why) and Marc Evan Jackson (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), have been roped in to play key roles alongside Gupta. The dual milestones underline just how expansive her presence has become this year, moving fluidly between acting, directing and producing across Indian and American cinema.
In Arya, written and directed by Neil Tuli, Sayani plays the title role, that of a disciplined piano teacher from a well-known and prestigious Indian conservatory who reluctantly takes on an assignment in northern Minnesota, with hopes of rescuing a struggling band program while also fuelling her own career ambitions back home. But her arrival leads to some chaos, and Arya is forced to deal with her own personal insecurities.
It's a role that continues Sayani Gupta's pattern of choosing layered, culturally specific characters. Only this time, she carries an entire American indie feature as its lead. Ross Butler and Marc Evan Jackson join a rounded-out cast that includes well-known artists like Arjun Gupta, Adi Roy, Kyra Leroux and Iqbal Theba. Sayani also serves as an executive producer on it as well, alongside Ross Butler.
Written and directed by Neil Tuli, Arya serves as his feature directorial debut as well. However, what makes this moment a particularly significant is that it has arrived just as Sayani's directorial debut Aasmani, which she also wrote and produced, began its positive festival run, stretching from Washington DC to Tokyo to Kerala.
Taken together, the two projects capture an actor who has spent over a decade building a reputation for depth on Indian OTT and is now stepping into new territory, both as a director whose first film is being appreciated globally and as a lead carrying her first American feature.
Also Read: Sayani Gupta’s directorial debut Aasmani to be screeened at 10 film festivals in 2 months
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