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The studio’s new slate contains Spice & Soul—its first original climate microdrama. It also includes Little Thomas, a family feature on sex education for children that releases in cinemas across India on 23rd October, and In The Shadows, a biopic of refugee boxer Ramla Ali that releases in UK cinemas on 30th October.
With climate change central to its current focus, the production house aims to make the climate conversation hopeful, accessible and part of everyday entertainment.
‘Climate change is the defining story of our generation, and it is now at the heart of everything Civic Studios is building. With Spice & Soul, we have seen that audiences will embrace a climate story when it comes to them with warmth, romance and hope, and that is the direction we want to take with all our storytelling,’ said Anushka Shah, founder, Civic Studios. ‘Alongside films like Little Thomas and In The Shadows, which open conversations on subjects that too often go unspoken, we are building a studio where entertainment and impact go hand in hand. In the years ahead, we want to make these stories as a part of popular culture as any other genre, across every screen and every audience we reach,’ added shah.
Spice & Soul, funded by Climate Spring and produced by Civic Studios, is a 16-episode romance microdrama starring Mrinmayee Godbole as Tanishka, an ambitious young chef, and Gaurav Alugh as Arjun, a stubborn organic farmer. Directed by Mandar Kurundkar, it examines food waste, seasonal eating, local sourcing and greenwashing through the couple’s story. Created natively for Instagram, it has a digital distribution of more than 460,000 and has already crossed 15 million views across social media platforms. Spice & Soul was conceived to build climate awareness in a bite-sized format that entertains while it educates, with a solution-first approach in place of doomsday messaging.
Little Thomas, a family entertainer for audiences of all ages, approaches sex education through the innocent lens of an eight-year-old boy who asks the age-old question: “Where do babies come from?” Written and directed by two-time National Award winner Kaushal Oza, it stars Gulshan Devaiah and Rasika Dugal along with child actor Hridansh Parekh in the title role. Produced by Luminoso Pictures, Good Bad Films and Civic Studios, in association with Flip Films, the film delves into how, in Indian society, sex education is rarely discussed outside of biology lessons. Helmed by producers Anurag Kashyap, Anushka Shah, Charu Oza, Rajnikant Oza, Kabir Ahuja and Ranjan Singh, Little Thomas reflects Civic Studios’ continuing commitment to independent Indian cinema with social impact.
Based on a true story, In The Shadows is a biopic of British-Somalian boxer Ramla Ali, who fled the civil war and secretly took up boxing against her family’s wishes, going on to become a boundary-breaking champion. Directed by BAFTA and Emmy-winning Anthony Wonke, the film stars BAFTA winner Jasmine Jobson in the titular role as Ramla Ali, Finn Cole and Gershwyn Eustache Jr. Produced by Sleeper Films, Affine Films in association with Civic Studios, the film explores themes of identity and resilience. Executive producers include Anushka Shah, Ramla Ali, Richard Moore along with Lee Magiday, Madeleine Sanderson (Curate Films) and co-producer Nell Green. It reflects Civic Studios’ commitment, as an Indian studio telling stories on a global scale, to women-led and women-centric storytelling.
Civic Studios’ slate also includes Award-winning microdrama Scam City, which exposes trafficking and cybercrime within global scam networks, and It’s Only 47°C and The Miracle at Kachua Beach, which bring climate inequality and collective climate action to the screen. It also features Santosh, the UK’s official Oscar entry examining caste, gender and institutional corruption, and Christmas Karma, a musical retelling of A Christmas Carol that explores immigration and race.
