Bird Flu Epidemic Immigrant Drama ‘Feather Men’ Bows at WAVES Film Bazaar

Immigrant drama “Feather Men” (Khoriya), the debut feature from Delhi-based filmmaker Vishwendra Singh, has been selected for the Work-in-Progress (WIP) section at WAVES Film Bazaar, the market component of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

The project comes from Future East Film. The film is produced by Niharika Singh (“Cla$$”) with Ashim Ahluwalia (Cannes, Venice and SXSW-premiering director of “Miss Lovely”) serving as executive producer. Co-producers include Faraz Khan (Going Rogue films) and Prayas Deepti (Inquilab Studios).

“Feather Men” follows two Nepali half-brothers fighting to keep their modest poultry farm afloat as a bird-flu epidemic ravages their flock. As their livelihood collapses, the fissures between the two brothers intensify. A migrant parlour worker contending with predatory labour and the fluorescent exploitation of the city’s beauty industry is the third character in a film that the producers describe as “both an intimate character study and a wider metaphor about those living at the periphery of India’s booming urban expansion.”

Says producer Niharika Singh, “This is a story about the universal search for dignity in a world changing faster than people can keep up.”

Director Vishwendra Singh has long collaborated with Future East, serving on the teams of “Daddy” (2017), “The Field Guide to Evil” (2018) and “Cla$$” (2023). His debut short “Hauah,” played at festivals including NYIFF and DIFF. “Feather Men” marks his first feature.

The production has been financed independently to date, and the team now seeks completion funding to finish post-production and begin engaging with sales and distribution partners. Debut actors Nilesh Rai, Bhawana Rai and Suman Rai lead the cast of the Nepali-Hindi language feature which is currently in the editing stage.

“At Future East, we are committed to creating space for narratives that rarely find support within either mainstream or arthouse frameworks. Through “Khoriya,” we reaffirm our belief that cinema must also belong to those who exist on its periphery and are often unacknowledged. It is a story not bound by geography, but by the shared human desire to be seen, heard, and remembered,” says producer Singh.