Two South Asian American teens are torn apart by family tragedy and mental illness. Reunited years later, they face the fragile bridges between past and present, memory and survival - only to discover that accepting impermanence, ANITYA, may be the most profound act of love.
ANITYA follows Mona, a sensitive South Asian American woman shaped by a childhood marked by first love and first loss. At thirteen, she forms an unbreakable bond with Sam, a classmate carrying deep wounds from an abusive home—but when his mother’s suicide forces his family to leave the country, Mona is left with grief she never learns to name. Years later, now an engineer in Chicago pressured to inherit her father’s bridge-building legacy, Mona’s carefully constructed life unravels when Sam suddenly reenters her world. Their reunion ignites an intoxicating, complicated love that awakens everything she buried, but Sam’s untreated mental-health struggles and Mona’s own unhealed trauma begin to destabilize the fragile second chance they’ve been given. As a bridge collapses under her watch and her father’s health declines, Mona is forced to confront the limits of love, memory, and the structures she’s spent her life trying to hold together. With the Sanskrit idea of ANITYA—IMPERMANENCE—echoing through every choice, Mona must decide whether saving Sam means losing herself, or whether letting go is the most profound act of love she can offer.
Radha Mehta (she/her) is a civil engineer-turned-filmmaker with an MFA in Film Directing at American Film Institute, and MBA from Kellogg School of Management, and a voting member of The Recording Academy. Her works stem from personal experience as an Indian first-gen mother raised in the US, exploring themes of motherhood, women empowerment, family business, and dismantling cultural taboos around mental health and disabilities. Radha's award winning films include DOSH (Slamdance Spirit Award, Cannes Lions YDA Nominee, Princess Grace Award Nominee, Jury & Audience Winner of Bengalaru Int'l and Tasveer Film Festivals); Winds of Silence (16Days16Films w/ UN Women, Geena Davis Institute, TimesUp); SŪNNA (CAPE Julia Gouw Grant Winner); Witness (InsideOut RE:Focus Winner, Islamic Scholarship Fund); Standing With Moms (Jury Winner for Women's Voices Now), Evan Ever After (Jury & Audience Winner of Florida Film Festival & Out On Film); and Being Gina (STARZ/Lionsgate/WRAP Top 3 Finalist).
Lynn Shelton "Of A Certain Age" Grant, 2026 - Finalist
Antigravity Screenwriters Camp, 2026 - Quarterfinalist
Sundance Writer/Director Lab, 2026 - Round 2
