Pyre Movie: Vinod Kapri’s Award-Winning Himalayan Film With 80-Year-Old Debutant Padam Singh Reaches Theatres; More Cities From November 6
Vinod Kapri’s Pyre, about an elderly couple left behind in an emptying Kumaon village, has won 18 international awards and is now in Indian theatres. What to know.
Photo: Kanishkapant98 / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pune, 2nd November 2026: Some of the most moving Indian films of recent years have come with no stars at all, and Pyre is one of them. Directed by Vinod Kapri, best known for Pihu, the Hindi-Kumaoni film stars two first-time actors in their seventies and eighties and has picked up 18 international awards since its world premiere. It reached Indian theatres at the end of October, according to reports, and its makers have announced releases in more cities and languages from 6 November, including Kerala, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Pyre was among the films trending in Indian entertainment searches this week.
What Pyre is about
The film is set in a nearly deserted village in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. Padam and his frail wife Tulsi are among the last people left in their village, as younger families have moved away to the plains and cities. Their son, Hariya, went to Bombay years ago and keeps promising to visit. As their health fails and the village empties further, the old couple face loneliness, illness and a terrible question about how their life together should end.
It is a quiet film about love in old age, but it also speaks to a real crisis in the Himalayan states. Uttarakhand has hundreds of villages that have been largely abandoned as people leave for jobs elsewhere, earning them the name “ghost villages”.
The cast: real villagers, not actors
The leads are Padam Singh, who is about 80, and Heera Devi, about 70. Neither had acted before. Kapri’s approach of casting people from the region gives the film an authenticity that trained actors would struggle to match. The film also uses Kumaoni dialogue and folk songs.
Awards and festivals
Pyre premiered in the official competition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia in November 2024, where it won the audience award for best film. It went on to win at the Indian Film Festival of London, the Birmingham Indian Film Festival, the Indian Film Festival Stuttgart, the DC South Asian Film Festival and several others, and received a Jury Special Mention at the Bengaluru International Film Festival.
Release in India
The Indian theatrical release was first set for 23 October and then moved by a week, according to reports. Cinépolis is distributing the film. From 6 November, it is set to open in Kerala and Bengaluru, and in Hyderabad at several multiplexes, in multiple languages including Malayalam.
Small independent films often get very few shows, sometimes only for a week, so if Pyre is playing in Pune, it is worth catching early. Check BookMyShow or the Cinépolis app for shows near you, and ask your local multiplex if it is not listed. Word of mouth decides whether films like this get more screens.
For more films to watch this month, see our list of Marathi movies in November, and if you prefer streaming, our note on Akka on Netflix.
Frequently asked questions
Who directed Pyre?
Pyre is directed by Vinod Kapri, who also made Pihu.
What is the story of Pyre?
It follows an elderly couple, Padam and Tulsi, who are among the last residents of an emptying village in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region, waiting for a son who never comes.
Who are the actors in Pyre?
The leads are first-time actors Padam Singh and Heera Devi, along with a supporting cast that includes Subhash Chandra and Shubham Chaudhary.
When will Pyre release in Kerala?
Pyre is set to release in Kerala and Bengaluru on 6 November 2026, with shows in Hyderabad as well.
