#FIRSTLOOK: “THE DEVIL’S TEARS” TO BEGIN PRODUCTION IN 2015-2016

Anand Ramayya’s KARMA Film have come on to produce The Devil’s Tears with Blackout Media, with Shant Joshi’s Fae Pictures to executive produce. The partnership marks a major milestone for the two South Asian-Canadian owned production companies.

Development is financed by Creative Saskatchewan, and the project has been selected for the 1497 Mentor Lab and as a finalist for the Breaking Through the Lens Chopard Action Grant

Written and to be directed by Maya Bastian as her debut feature, The Devil’s Tears is an ensemble horror film set in a remote Sri Lankan jungle village that has been ravaged by war. A red rain begins to fall at night amplifying the dark proclivities of the villagers, the dismantling all societal order.

Producers are Karl Janisse of Blackout Media (Tigress), Anand Ramayya and Kelly Balon of KARMA Film (Donkeyhead, Our Big Punjabi Family), and executive producing is Shant Joshi, Lindsay Blair Goeldner, and Abdul Malik of Fae Pictures (In Flames, Framing Agnes).

The project is currently in development with financing expected to begin late 2024 and production to take place in 2025-2026 in India.

Coming off of their successful launches of South Asian-Canadian titles Donkeyhead and In Flames, the milestone partnership aims to leverage a Canadian international co-production raising towards a sub $15M dollar budget with an ensemble Tamil cast as a formidable competitor for arthouse festival audiences, South Indian commercial audiences, and global genre audiences.

“The Devil’s Tears is a story like no other. I’m proud to be supported by these incredible companies who all have a strong track record of bringing unique South Asian voices to audiences worldwide,” says Bastian.

“Maya’s background in conflict journalism combined with her deep personal connections to the community have added layer upon layer of subtle complexities that fill this incredibly original script with the potential to be a truly groundbreaking film. The Devil’s Tears and its filmmakers are the reason we exist as producers and we are thrilled to help bring this to fruition,” said Ramayya.

“The recent box office successes for distinct and unique writer-director voices like Gerwig, Nolan, Atlee, and Nelson, and the wave of sold out theatres for socially relevant arthouse cinema with a genre bent gives us confidence to face the market with a dynamic project like this,” said Shant Joshi. “We are excited to continue to decolonize cinema with The Devil’s Tears, pointing our lens towards the oppression and genocide of ethnic minorities, an increasingly universal theme given the rise of fascism in many parts of the world.”