Aastha Tiku’s Dreamboat to Make Its World Premiere at DIFF 2026
Filmmaker Aastha Tiku is preparing to introduce audiences to an unusual new story with Dreamboat, her directorial debut. The 24-minute fantasy comedy-drama will have its world premiere at the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), scheduled to run from October 29 to November 1, 2026. Its festival debut will also launch the film’s wider journey through the international festival circuit.
Starring Sofia Ashraf, Supriya Joshi, Tenzin Dalha and Prayrak Mehta, Dreamboat blends comedy, fantasy and emotional drama to explore creativity, desire and the search for connection. Rather than following a conventional romantic storyline, the short film builds its premise around an artist’s intensely personal bond with an object that becomes part muse, part companion and part mystery.
A surreal journey through Mumbai
The film follows an underground musician whose unconventional relationship with her favourite pillow is disrupted when her mother intervenes. After the pillow is abandoned, the musician sets off on a strange journey through Mumbai. As she moves through the city, her friendships and desires begin to change, while the line between everyday life and fantasy grows increasingly difficult to distinguish.
The pillow itself takes on a life of its own, giving the story an unexpected surreal dimension. Its transformation helps turn a seemingly small domestic conflict into a larger exploration of loneliness, imagination and the need to feel understood. Mumbai is more than a backdrop: the city’s energy and contrasts provide an unpredictable landscape for the protagonist’s shifting inner world.
That mixture of the familiar and the fantastical is central to the film’s appeal. A pillow is an ordinary object, yet Tiku uses it to examine the relationship between an artist and a source of inspiration. The premise invites viewers to consider how creativity can attach itself to unexpected things—and how the objects, people or ideas that offer comfort can also become part of a person’s emotional life.
A story that began in a dream
Tiku, who previously worked as a writer on the 2021 film Sherni, has said that the idea for Dreamboat first came to her in a dream. She spent several months interpreting the images and feelings it left behind before shaping them into a screenplay.
“Dreamboat literally came to me in a dream and I spent a few months trying to decipher it and mould it into a screenplay,” Tiku said. She wanted the film’s world to remain emotionally recognisable while following the unusual associations and sudden shifts of dream logic.
That approach gives the short film room to move between grounded experiences and surreal turns without requiring every moment to be explained literally. The result, as Tiku describes it, is a story that aims to feel both relatable and strange—a combination well suited to a character navigating questions of intimacy, artistic identity and personal freedom.
Discussing the film’s central relationship, Tiku said the fantasy genre allowed her to place a female protagonist at the centre of a story about an artist and her muse. She described the project as an opportunity to trust her instincts and make something “honest, punk and experiential.” That creative ambition suggests a film more interested in mood, character and sensory expression than in familiar genre formulas.
Amit Masurkar backs Tiku’s debut
Dreamboat is produced by Tiku alongside National Award-winning filmmaker Amit Masurkar. His credits include Newton, Sherni and Sulemani Keeda, projects that have established him as a distinctive voice in contemporary Indian cinema.
Masurkar said the film’s unconventional premise and the visual treatment boards prepared by Tiku drew him to the project. He praised the way she brings together pop culture, music, colour, language and fashion to create what he called a “campy and surreal fever dream.” The combination points to a vibrant visual identity, with style and sound playing an important role in how the story unfolds.
“We are excited to begin our festival journey with DIFF,” Masurkar said. The Dharamshala International Film Festival provides a fitting first platform for a short film that takes creative risks and draws on a distinctly personal vision. Its world premiere will introduce the project to festival audiences before it continues to other screenings and events.
Sofia Ashraf makes her acting debut
The lead role marks Sofia Ashraf’s acting debut. Ashraf is known as a rapper, artist and activist, and gained wide attention for her protest song Kodaikanal Won’t. Her background in music and performance offers an intriguing connection to a character who is herself an underground musician, although Dreamboat gives her a new medium through which to reach audiences.
Ashraf is joined by comedian and digital creator Supriya Joshi, actor Tenzin Dalha and Prayrak Mehta. Moses Koul and Gurpal Singh also appear in the cast. Together, the ensemble supports a story that moves between friendship, family tension, artistic ambition and the protagonist’s increasingly unpredictable encounters.
For audiences following independent Indian cinema, the film is notable for bringing together emerging directorial work, a music-led premise and a cast with varied creative backgrounds. It also illustrates how short films can use a compact format to explore ideas that might otherwise be approached through a feature-length narrative.
What comes next for Aastha Tiku?
After completing Dreamboat, Tiku is developing her first feature film as a director. The project is expected to go on floors in 2027, marking the next step in her move from screenwriting into directing. While details of the feature have not yet been announced, the short provides an early look at the imaginative and character-focused approach she is bringing to her work behind the camera.
With its world premiere at DIFF, Dreamboat is set to begin a festival run that could introduce Tiku’s surreal Mumbai story to new audiences. The film’s blend of fantasy, comedy and emotional searching offers a distinctive alternative to more conventional screen narratives—and a fresh entry in the conversation around independent Indian cinema and Bollywood’s wider creative landscape.
