As 2025 is coming to an end, filmmaker Rahhat Shah Kazmi, whose release “Love in Vietnam” travelled across Asia along with winning honours, has looked back and said that nothing prepares for a “year like this”. “Nothing prepares you for a year like this,” he said.
The filmmaker added: “You make a film hoping it will connect with people. But when strangers from another country come up to you and say your story moved them, changed them, stayed with them, it humbles you in a way awards never can.”
“We are living in a time where loud often replaces honest,” Kazmi said. The film earned major accolades in South Korea, including Best Asian Film and Best Director for Kazmi himself. While Chinese distributors embraced it for a wide release.
Even in Vietnam, where the film premiered at the Da Nang Asian Film Festival, the audiences were drawn to its cross-cultural storytelling. “This year reminded me that honesty still has a place, maybe even more than we realise. Cinema does not need to shout to travel.
It just needs to feel true.” Kazmi said 2025 has made him more aware. “If anything, this year has made me more aware of the responsibility I carry as a filmmaker. When stories cross borders, you realise how carefully they must be told.” Looking ahead, his vision for cinema is clearer than ever.
“I want to make films that last beyond opening weekends. Stories that people return to years later, not because they were perfect, but because they felt real.” “If 2025 taught me anything, it’s this: when you stop chasing scale and start chasing truth, the world somehow finds its way to your film.”
Starring Shantanu Maheshwari and Avneet Kaur, Love in Vietnam is a heartfelt cross-cultural love story, produced by Captain Rahul Bali, Rahhat Shah Kazmi, Omung Kumar, Sarvesh Goel, Tariq Khan, Zeba Sajid, Mohammad Antulay, Sahil Sheikh, and Pankaj Singh Chauhan, and co-produced by Samten Hills Dalat, Vikas Sharma, Kritika Rampal, Devansh Bhardwaj, and Nguyen Cao Tung.