Tickets are now available for the 2022 Tribeca Festival, which runs from Wednesday, June 8 to Sunday, June 19. Held in New York City, the annual film festival is organized by Tribeca Enterprises, which was founded in 2003 by the legendary Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff. Tribeca's diverse programming features a selection of film, TV episodes, panels and talks, music, and more. Its film program boasts a plethora of categories, from US Narrative Competition to Gala Premieres. The former category, in particular, will house the world premiere of the comedy-heist film Four Samosas from actor-writer-director Ravi Kapoor (Miss India America).
Starring Venk Potula (who also served as the film's producer), Sonal Shah, Sharmita Bhattacharya, Nirvan Patnaik, Karan Soni, Summer Bishil, and Meera Simhan, Four Samosas tells the story of creatively blocked and wannabe rapper Vinny (Potula) who devises a plan with his friends to steal his soon-to-be-married ex-girlfriend's family diamonds from her father's supermarket safe in order to stop the wedding. The film is set in Los Angeles, specifically in the city's Little India neighborhood, which deliberately spotlights elements of India culture, from food and music to tradition and values. Per Deadline, Ghosts star Utkarsh Ambudkar has signed on as Four Samosas' executive producer, with Verve Ventures primed to handle its sales.
Four Samosas Tribeca Tickets Sold Out in Ten Minutes
In our interview ahead of Four Samosas world premiere at Tribeca, Potula expressed his excitement at finally being able to "share [the movie] with the world," tickets for which the actor says sold out in ten minutes. "When you make a film, it's like a baby. You [have] to kind of let it grow up, and let everyone experience and ingest it as they might." More significantly, for Potula and the rest of the film's cast and crew, Tribeca will effectively mark the first time it'll be seen by an audience. "I'm looking forward to seeing it with an [audience], especially a comedy," he says. "It's always fun to see where people laugh, and I can't wait. I've seen it so many times, but to see it with an audience — I imagine it feels like watching for the first time again."
Four Samosas' premiere at Tribeca is a sure sign of a shift in the industry. It's no secret that Indian cinema, particularly Bollywood movies, has long been a filmmaking juggernaut, but for the majority of North American audiences, it's rare to see an ensemble cast of South Asian characters on-screen. Coming off the heels of RRR especially, which recently broke Netflix streaming records, it seems as if we're on the cusp of a surge in a desire for South Asian stories. "The fact that we're here with an all-South Asian film at Tribeca is so huge," says Potula. "I can't imagine anything like that happening even three or four years ago."
Four Samosas will have multiple in-person screenings at Tribeca — with its first screening on Friday, June 10 marking its world premiere — before becoming available virtually throughout the festival's run on Sunday, June 12.