Delhi-to-Sweden love story premieres in New York

New York, Aug 21 (IANS) A documentary tracing an Indian street artist’s extraordinary bicycle journey from Delhi to Sweden for love premiered in New York, bringing a real-life story of caste, culture and human connection to an American audience.

“The Cycle of Love” follows P.K. Mahanandia, a 23-year-old artist born into a poor Dalit family, and Lotta von Schedvin, a 19-year-old Swedish woman who travelled to India in 1977.

The film had its New York red-carpet premiere at the Directors Guild of America Theatre in Manhattan. Orlando von Einsiedel, whose credits include “The White Helmets”, “Virunga” and “The Lost Children”, directed the documentary.

The film recounts how Mahanandia, working as a street artist in Delhi, met von Schedvin after she asked him to draw her portrait. Their meeting led to a romance that crossed borders and social barriers.

When von Schedvin returned home, Mahanandia set out to join her. He travelled about 6,000 miles by bicycle and crossed nearly a dozen countries before reaching Sweden.

“The Cycle of Love is based on our parents’ love story, how they met,” producer Emelie Mahanandia von Schedvin, their daughter, said in an interview with IANS.

She said the director chose to explore the wider meaning of the journey instead of presenting only a detailed account of her father’s life.

“He wanted to focus on the love story of our parents and meeting other people that, you know, from different cultures and things, on the way, the journey from India to Sweden,” she said.

The production team encountered people from different countries and backgrounds along the route. Those unscripted exchanges became part of the documentary.

“Even though you don’t speak the same language, you can always speak the language of heart, you know? We’ve maybe come from a different religions and things, but we all come from a religion of love,” Emelie said.

Chirag Benedict Lobo plays Mahanandia, while Mina Dale portrays von Schedvin. Lobo said the film’s encounters with people along the journey reinforced its central message.

“Everyone else that you see in the film, they’re all real life people sharing their thoughts about life, faith, forgiveness, love, destiny,” he said.

“Those conversations with real people just moved me so much because it just made me believe that our society is not broken and that everyone wants to be loved, everyone deserves love, and we must share that love with everyone in this divisive world,” Lobo added.

Dale, who is from Norway, said the production took her to India for the first time. The actors worked without scripted dialogue and filmed in places where the events had occurred.

“Everything was improvised. There were no lines at all. And we travelled and we were in the places where the actual events happened, which is just amazing,” she said.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is among the film’s executive producers. Karl Mahanandia von Schedvin, the couple’s son and one of the producers, said Chopra Jonas connected with the story’s cross-cultural theme.

“She really loved the story of our parents because she can sort of see herself in it in one way because her husband is from another country as well and she’s from India,” Emelie said.

The documentary comes from the Academy Award-winning team behind “The White Helmets”, “Virunga” and “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)”. Producers include Emelie and Karl Mahanandia von Schedvin, Harri Grace and Chloe Leland.

Chopra Jonas, an Indian actor and producer with an international career, has supported projects through her production work that bring Indian and South Asian stories to global audiences. “The Cycle of Love” continues that effort through a story spanning India, Europe and the United States.

–IANS

lkj/rs