New Delhi, March 11 A revised and updated edition of the screenplay for the 1989 film "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones," written by award-winning author Arundhati Roy, is set to be released this month, Penguin Random House India (PRHI) announced on Wednesday.
Set in 1974 in a school of architecture, the film, directed by filmmaker and environmentalist Pradip Krishen, follows a group of "drug-smoking, bell-bottom-wearing, and vaguely idealistic" final-year students racing to complete their theses.
Thirty-eight years after the film was made, its damaged negative was recovered and restored in 4K by the Film Heritage Foundation, led by its founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
The restored version will be released in theaters on Friday.
"If it weren't for the Film Heritage Foundation and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's long-term dedication and love for the film, and if it weren't for Pradip's carefully preserved materials, 'In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones' would not have had the opportunity to be recognized in the real world before being archived," writes Roy in the book's introduction.
The new edition of the screenplay commemorates the restoration and the film's continuing cultural relevance.
It includes new introductions by Roy, Krishen, and Dungarpur, offering readers insights into the making of the film, the loss and recovery of its negative, and its remarkable afterlife.
"Why does this small, scrappy film, made 38 years ago, keep surfacing from its underground existence? That's what certain films, books, and songs do. And we'll never really know why. In Annie's case, I believe it's because all of us, every single person in the cast and crew, worked on it with joy.
"Together, we were a band, jamming together, and dancing to the same rhythm. There are no real stars. It was all of us. That's what gives the film its irreverence and its lightheartedness," the 64-year-old author added.
The Delhi-based author is known for her award-winning novels such as "The God of Small Things" and "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness," as well as her essays compiled in "The End of Imagination," "The Doctor and The Saint," and "The Algebra of Infinite Justice."
Roy's latest book, "Mother Mary Comes to Me," was recently awarded the 'Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award' 2026.