Anoop Lokkur’s debut Kannada feature as a writer-director-producer, Don’t Tell Mother’ is making its World Premiere at the prestigious 30th Busan International Film Festival in ‘Windows To Asian Cinema’. The festival will be held from 17-26 Sept, 2025. 

Windows To Asian Cinema is a peek into various styles and visions within Asian Cinema highlighting the latest films from the well-established as well as rookies of the industry. The audience can grasp the zeitgeist of Asian Films of contemporary times. 

Set in 1990s Bangalore, Don’t Tell Mother stars Siddharth Swaroop as Akaash, Aishwarya Dinesh as Amma, Anirudh P. Keserker as Adi, and Karthik Nagarajan as Appa. The film is a tender, emotionally resonant portrait of childhood and the quiet ways love heals. As a young boy endures corporal punishment at school and his mother bears the unseen weight of a patriarchal world, tragedy forces the family to confront what has long been left unsaid.

Excited about the Busan premiere Anoop says, “Don’t Tell Mother is the most personal thing I’ve ever made. It comes from a really vulnerable place, memories of my childhood and the love I have for my mother. Writing it helped me understand her struggles in a way I hadn’t before. We were such a small team, but everyone, the cast and the crew gave their all to bring this story to life. To now have our World Premiere at Busan feels almost unreal. I’m so grateful to the programmers for believing in our film, and I hope audiences connect with it.”

The Indo-Australian film is shot by Mathew Jenkins, edited by Pavan Bhat, and produced by Anoop Lokkur, Mathew Jenkins, and Mikalya Henke under PAPUNU FILMS and EAST REEL FILMS, with Nishil Sheth and Karan Kadam as co-producers.

Logline

When tragedy strikes, 9-year-old Aakash, secretly enduring school violence, forms unbreakable bonds with his strict but loving mother and younger brother in 1990s Bangalore.

Long Synopsis

Set in 1990s Bangalore, Don’t Tell Mother is a tender coming-of-age drama that follows Aakash, a  9-year-old boy navigating the quiet struggles of childhood. At school, he endures the anger of a frustrated Math teacher—pain he keeps hidden from his mother, Amma. At home, Amma wrestles with the suffocating demands of a patriarchal world that leaves little space for her own identity. As tensions rise, Aakash finds solace in his innocent younger brother, Adi. But when tragedy strikes, the fragile bonds between them are tested in unexpected ways, forcing Aakash to confront the weight of grief, guilt, and an emerging empathy for the mother he once feared.Don’t Tell Mother is a deeply human story about the emotional inheritance passed from grown ups to children. It captures the confusion of childhood, the quiet heartbreaks of motherhood, and the moments of grace that flicker between pain and understanding.Set in a world where love often arrives hand-in-hand with hurt, the film examines how children inherit not just affection but anger, fear, and silence. The film peels back the layers of family to reveal the wounds we excuse, the patterns we repeat, and the resilience it takes to break free.

Director’s Statement 

Don’t Tell Mother is a deeply personal film inspired by my childhood in a middle-class Bangalore family. It explores the silent wounds of childhood—those moments of trauma that shape us in unseen ways. Two incidents from my past form the foundation of this story. One was the day my Math teacher mercilessly caned me for speaking too much in class—an act of violence so routine, yet profoundly scarring. The other was a traumatic moment when my younger brother was rushed to the hospital because of me, his survival uncertain. These experiences, though personal, reflect a reality for many Indian children, where physical punishment is normalized and its impact overlooked. At the heart of the story is my mother—a woman torn between her dreams and societal expectations. I watched as she struggled to pursue her dreams, only to be repeatedly silenced by a patriarchal society. My mother was caught between two worlds – her family and her aspirations – both at odds in a society that expected her to hide behind her children. It was through making this film that I truly began to understand her journey. Her sacrifices, her resilience, and the quiet battles she fought as a woman in the 1990s Mothers are often blamed for a child’s missteps while fathers receive credit for their success. They rarely get the appreciation they deserve. Even today, gender roles dictate that women bear the weight of raising children and managing a household, often at the cost of their own ambitions. 

“Through this film, I wanted to explore not only the impact of violence on children, but also the emotional cost borne by women forced to navigate a world that often denies them recognition or freedom.”

DIRECTORS BIO

Anoop Lokkur is a Melbourne-based filmmaker, originally from Bangalore, India. His debut feature, Don’t Tell Mother, will have its World Premiere at the 2025 Busan International Film Festival.

After completing a Master’s in International Business and a career in the corporate world, Anoop shifted paths to study filmmaking at the Victorian College of the Arts. His short Long Distance screened at festivals including MIFF and Palm Springs ShortFest, and was later acquired by Canal+. A 2019 MIFF Accelerator Lab alumnus, his work explores the complexities of human relationships with a naturalistic style marked by intimacy and emotional honesty.