'Story worth telling': Anusha Rizvi on upcoming Moosewala documentary
14 Dec 2025

Filmmaker Anusha Rizvi, known for Peepli Live (2010), is back to direction with her family drama The Great Shamsuddin Family, now streaming on JioHotstar.

While it took her eight years to bring this story to life, she has also been working on several other projects.

These include a large-scale documentary on the late Punjabi singer and rapper Sidhu Moosewala, who was killed in 2022 at the age of 28.

Rizvi's documentary on Moosewala transformed into multi-part series
Project evolution

Rizvi initially planned to make a film on Moosewala but later decided to turn it into a multi-part documentary.

She told Mid-Day, "I think the Sidhu Moosewala story is a grand masala film, but this is real."

"From his growth in a small village to cycling miles to study, it is like the original Bollywood story of rise."

"I cannot fictionalize the story and write it better than what I can show in real life."

Rizvi's documentary on Moosewala remains unfinished, but she's hopeful
Unfinished project

Despite working on the documentary for two years, Rizvi has not been able to complete it.

She admitted, "I don't know when I'll be able to do it fully." "But I hope I am able to because it's a story worth telling."

Even filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, who collaborated with her, was impressed by the information she had gathered for the project.

Rizvi's other projects and contributions to Urdu storytelling
Other endeavors

Apart from the Moosewala documentary, Rizvi is also working on adapting Amitav Ghosh's novel Sea of Poppies.

She is also reviving and leading the Dastangoi Collective, a group that aims to popularize the ancient Urdu art of storytelling.

"It's the kind of work in the nature of nation building," she said about her work with Dastangoi.