Highlights
- The inaugural South Asian Film Festival UK will celebrate Indian cinema with three restored classics across England this October.
- Sangam, Kabhi Kabhie and Dil Chahta Hai will screen across eight Showcase Cinemas.
- Each screening will feature a special Filmy Sing-Along Medley before the film.
Classic Hindi cinema is getting a big-screen revival in the UK, with the inaugural South Asian Film Festival UK set to bring three much-loved films back to cinemas this October.
Supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, the festival will run on three Sundays, with Sangam, Kabhi Kabhie and Dil Chahta Hai presented in restored editions and anniversary screenings.
The festival aims to celebrate the films, music and filmmakers that have shaped generations of Indian cinema audiences, while giving audiences the chance to experience the films collectively in cinemas.
Three classics return to the big screen
The festival opens on October 4 with Raj Kapoor’s Sangam, presented in a 4K restored edition. The romantic epic will be followed on October 11 by Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kabhie, marking its 50th anniversary.
The festival will conclude on October 18 with Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai, marking 25 years since the coming-of-age film was released and changed the way modern Hindi cinema portrayed friendship and young adulthood.
All three films will screen simultaneously at eight Showcase Cinema locations across England: Bluewater, Southampton, Reading, Leicester, Coventry, Nottingham, Leeds and Dudley.
Every screening will begin with a Bollywood sing-along
The festival is also introducing its own format to the screenings. Each event will begin with an exclusive Filmy Sing-Along Medley featuring songs from some of Indian cinema’s most recognisable films.
The medley will include footage featuring stars including Dev Anand, Asha Parekh, Sunil Dutt, Sharmila Tagore, Dharmendra, Mumtaz, Shashi Kapoor, Rakhee, Rajesh Khanna, Rekha, Rishi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi, Salman Khan, Kajol, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Abhishek Bachchan and Katrina Kaif.
Festival director Rajesh Bedi said the event was intended to be more than a series of screenings.
“The South Asian Film Festival UK is more than just a film festival – it is a celebration of culture, nostalgia, music and storytelling,” he said.
He added that the classics deserved to be experienced “on the big screen, surrounded by fellow cinema lovers”, with the sing-along designed to make each screening a shared experience.
A festival built around generations of audiences
The festival is supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, which uses National Lottery funding to support projects that widen access to culturally significant film programmes across the UK.
Sarah-Jane Meredith, senior manager of the BFI National Lottery Audiences Projects, said the festival helps bring films to South Asian audiences that are “not readily available” to them in the UK, while placing South Asian film heritage within the mainstream cinema landscape.
Showcase Cinemas is the festival's official cinema partner, with director of event cinema James Dobbin saying the partnership would give audiences and families the opportunity to experience the restored films on the big screen.
The festival is also partnering with Lyca Radio and A Rosie World.
Tickets are now on sale through Showcase Cinemas, with the festival taking place on October 4, 11 and 18, 2026.
