I'm Not An Actor(2026)
Mouni, a 35 year old frustrated but puritanical actor in Mumbai meets Adnan Baig, a 55 year old depressed, recently retired banker in Frankfurt over an online film audition and spends the rest of the day teaching him acting over video calls. As they both walk around Mumbai and Frankfurt, the acting class forces them both to be emotionally naked and vulnerable; and confront things about themselves that they've both swept under the rug for years.
Quick Facts
- Theatrical Release
- 8 May 2026
- Director
- Aditya Kripalani
- Language
- Hindi
- Runtime
- 2h 2m
Storyline
A struggling actor in Mumbai finds an unexpected connection with a retired banker living in Frankfurt through an online audition. He begins teaching the older man about acting over video calls, but their lessons quickly become about something far deeper. As they talk and work together across two continents, both men slowly start opening up about the emotional pain and deep regrets they've hidden away for years. They discover that genuine healing and human connection are possible at any stage of life.
“Teaching acting. Learning to live.”
Film Details
Parental Guide
Vibe & Tags
Cast & Crew
Trivia
- Director Aditya Kripalani is best known for 'Tikli and Laxmi Bomb' (2017), a raw film about sex workers in Mumbai that featured largely non-professional actors — making his new film's central theme of teaching 'real' acting feel like a natural extension of his lifelong obsession with authenticity on screen.
- The Mumbai-to-Frankfurt axis is an unusual pairing for Hindi cinema, which typically uses European cities as glossy backdrops for song sequences rather than as intimate dramatic spaces where everyday people live quiet, complicated lives.
- By setting its key dramatic exchanges over video calls, the film taps into a storytelling format that Indian indie filmmakers began experimenting with during the pandemic years, using the screen-within-a-screen as both a limitation and an emotional device.
- Kripalani is known for writing his own scripts and working with lean crews, keeping the creative process tightly controlled — an approach that suits a story built almost entirely around two people talking across thousands of miles.
- A retired banker as a lead character is a rare choice for Hindi cinema, which tends to favour aspirational or glamorous professions; the film treats him not as comic relief but as a man carrying decades of unspoken feeling.
- The film quietly explores emotional suppression in older men, a theme gaining ground in contemporary Hindi indie cinema as directors move away from larger-than-life heroes toward quieter, more recognisable male characters.
- Because the story unfolds across two time zones, the filmmakers had to make deliberate choices about light and rhythm — Frankfurt's grey interiors and Mumbai's ambient noise become almost like supporting characters in their own right.