Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is asked to study Ashok, the actual resident of the room the actor is going to inhabit for the filming of Star, Dibakar Banerjee’s short in Bombay Talkies, 2013. The fiction director, the documentary filmmakers and the actor, bit by bit, construct the lead character of Bombay Talkies, Porandar Vithal. Ashok feeds this construction through his own life. The Ordinary Star is a documentary that ponders over the nature and cost of the cinematic process, it’s invasiveness, it’s need to devour so that it can create, and the endless search to live a life less ordinary.

The Ordinary Star (2026)

October 29, 2026 65 min

Documentary

Director: Samreen Farooqui, Shabani Hassanwalia

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is asked to study Ashok, the actual resident of the room the actor is going to inhabit for the filming of Star, Dibakar Banerjee’s short in Bombay Talkies, 2013. The fiction director, the documentary filmmakers and the actor, bit by bit, construct the lead character of Bombay Talkies, Porandar Vithal. Ashok feeds this construction through his own life. The Ordinary Star is a documentary that ponders over the nature and cost of the cinematic process, it’s invasiveness, it’s need to devour so that it can create, and the endless search to live a life less ordinary.

Director

Samreen Farooqui Shabani Hassanwalia

Cast

Dibakar Banerjee Nawazuddin Siddiqui