Toronto · 43.65°N 79.38°W

Rooted. Never still.

Hey! Fakira is an independent production label and evolving creative collective for stories that know where they come from and aren't afraid of where they might go.

Founded and creatively led by producer and filmmaker Tejasvi Bhalla, Hey! Fakira brings together changing constellations of filmmakers, artists and collaborators to create work that is specific, human, politically awake and unafraid to get strange.

Book a consult See the work

ਫ਼ਕੀਰਾفقیرا

Why Fakira

A good story never sits still.

A fakir is a wanderer. Moving from place to place, a fakir collects stories: their own, their community's, the ones strangers tell at the end of a long day. Punjab, on both sides of the border, has always been a land of fakirs and mystics, and that is where this label takes its name.

Our fakira wears red and never stops moving. Red, because our stories own their roots. Moving, because no story stays where it was first told. It takes to the road, retold by someone, to someone, a little further every time.

The collective gathers its people project by project, the way a wanderer gathers company on the road: writers, directors, artists and crew making work on their own terms, without translating themselves for anyone.

01 / Now in Motion

Now in Motion

Let It Simmer

FeatureDramaIn development

Upstairs, renting their first home in Canada, a homesick Pakistani bride and the husband she barely knows. Downstairs, their landlords: an Indian trans woman and the chef she’s about to marry. As meals travel between the two floors, a buried secret and a death back home force both couples to decide what to hold on to, and what to let simmer.

Directed by Shoaib Sultan · Written by Arham Sharif Hashmi and Shoaib Sultan
Produced by Tejasvi Bhalla and Mahnoor Zaidi
Shooting in Northern Ontario, Fall 2027

Where Saturn Is

FeatureComedyIn development

Suku is 27, broke, moving back into her Tamil parents' Markham home and pretending everything is far more under control than it is. Then her cousin Rathini flies in from London, expecting the Toronto trip they planned. A quarter-life comedy about money, family, sex, friendship and work, and the gap between who you thought you'd be by now and who you are. Midnight Murungai, the completed proof-of-concept short, grew from its world.

Directed & Written by Ramiya Pushparajah
Produced by Tejasvi Bhalla

Mithu

ShortDramaPost-production

Five-year-old Aasia has just moved from Pakistan to Canada. When her beloved stuffed toy, Mithu, goes missing, an ordinary night at home starts to expose the tensions she has been quietly absorbing all along.

Written and directed by Mahnoor Zaidi · Shot in Pakistan

No English

Mini seriesDramaIn development

Milkha Singh has been his Punjab village’s sarpanch for years. At 75, his son brings him to Toronto, where the bus drivers are Punjabi, the ministers are Punjabi, and almost nothing else makes sense. A warm, funny mini series about starting over in a language you don’t speak, with a family that’s still learning his.

Directed by Jaswant Deed · Written by Anil Kamal · Produced by Tejasvi Bhalla and Kulbinder Saran Caldwell
6 episodes of 7 to 10 minutes · Punjabi and English

Welcome Home

FeatureSurreal horrorIn development

Content note: sexual violence, self-harm

Natalie and Marcus are getting their rambling country house ready for a party to welcome their daughter home. Then a man arrives unannounced: the man who sexually assaulted Natalie decades ago, asking her to punish him for it. As the guests keep arriving, the house becomes a maze of denial, family loyalty and violence. A surreal horror about who gets centred in a survivor’s story, and whether revenge can ever heal.

Written & Directed by Michèle Kaye · Produced by Tejasvi Bhalla
Development support from Telefilm Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts

Interested in partnering with a project?

Let’s talk

02 / The Work

The Work

Tejasvi produces under the Hey! Fakira banner and in her own name. Both bodies of work live here.

Hey! Fakira Collective

Midnight Murungai 2025

Short · Proof of concept · Dir. Ramiya Pushparajah
Producer

A short from the world of the feature Where Saturn Is.

Official selections: IFFSA Toronto · South Asian Film Festival of Montréal

Nosocomephilia 2024

Psychological horror short · Dir. Michèle Kaye
Producer

A wealthy woman, starved of touch, books doctor after doctor as her body falls apart.

Premiered at Canadian Film Festival · Selections: Fantasia · Reykjavík International Film Festival · Nominee: 2025 Golden Sheaf Award, Fiction (15 min or under), Yorkton Film Festival · Acquired by CBC

Taboo 2022

Short · Written and directed by Nesa Huda
Producer

Mental health, faith, family and the dangerous cost of silence.

Official selection: Tasveer Film Festival (2023)

A Dinner Party 2019

Short · Dir. Michèle Kaye · Written by Michèle Kaye and Tejasvi Bhalla
Producer and co-writer

A dark, absurd dinner party as the world outside comes apart.

Official selections: Blood in the Snow (2020) · Final Girls Berlin (2021) · Broadcast distribution: CBC Canadian Reflections

Produced by Tejasvi Bhalla

Fan Girl 2023

Short · Dir. Shetu Modi
Co-producer

Official selections: Chicago South Asian Film Festival (2023) · IFFSA Toronto (2023) · Acquired by CBC

3pm, Thursdays 2023

Short · Dir. Michèle Kaye
Co-producer

Official selections: Fantasia (2023) · Reykjavík International Film Festival (2023)

The Elusive Purpurea Vulpavis film poster

The Elusive Purpurea Vulpavis 2021

Experimental comedy short · Dir. Michèle Kaye
Producer

Broadcast on Sheffield TV and Brighton TV

Lune 2021

Feature · Dir. Aviva Armour-Ostroff and Arturo Pérez Torres
Line producer

Canadian Screen Award nomination, Best Actress · Previously available on Prime Video

Merging With The Infinite 2019

Short · Dir. Ali Mashayekhi
Supervising producer

Raindance Film Festival

One in Two People 2019

Short · Dir. Ali Mashayekhi
Supervising producer

Blood in the Snow · Toronto Short Film Festival · Comic-Con Independent Film Festival

We Three Queens 2018

Short · Dir. Chris Agoston
Production supervisor

Official selection: Toronto After Dark Film Festival (2019)

Christmas Green 2018

Short · Dir. Clara Altimas
Production supervisor

Official selections: Austin Film Festival (2018) · Canadian Film Festival (2019)

Full filmography on IMDb →

03 / Consults

Hey! Got a script?

Every collaboration starts with a conversation. Bring a script, a deck, or the idea that won't leave you alone.

Script consultation

Notes on structure, character and voice, from first draft to shooting script.

Authenticity and impact

A cultural and representation read of your script, plus a plan for the community impact you want the film to have.

Producing strategy

How to structure, package and finance your project, from tax incentives and co-production options to the order you approach partners.

Story marketing and brand

Positioning, pitch decks and audience building, drawing on more than a decade of brand and campaign work.

Book a 30-minute consult

04 / About

Tejasvi Bhalla

PRODUCER · VISUAL ARTIST · FOUNDER

Tejasvi Bhalla started out in 2008 in India, working on live entertainment events alongside direct marketing and brand activation campaigns. Her bachelor’s in business administration, with a specialization in marketing, grounded the strategy side. That double life, one foot in story and one in strategy, has shaped everything since.

Film pulled her in further. After training in the US, she worked on international and local productions in India before moving to Canada in 2014 for film school. In 2016 she crewed her first Canadian feature and began producing content at creative agencies for clients including Rogers, IBM, Toyota, Subaru, Bruce Power and AstraZeneca, among others, while also working on a run of independent anthology films.

Her own projects grew out of that momentum, and Hey! Fakira Collective became their home. Her films have screened at Fantasia, Raindance, the Reykjavík International Film Festival, Final Girls Berlin, Blood in the Snow and the Canadian Film Festival, earned festival awards, and been acquired by CBC and Super Channel. She also line produced Lune, a Canadian Screen Award nominee.

An artist for as long as she can remember, Tejasvi followed storytelling into gaming and technology, and founded Creative Dino, a brand strategy and AI solutions agency. Every new venture starts from the same question: what does this story need to become?

Watch the Commercial Reel →

Supported by

Canada Council for the Arts · Ontario Arts Council · Telefilm Canada · Toronto Arts Council · Ontario Creates

Trained at Maine Media Workshops + College, USA + Confederation College, Thunder Bay, Canada

05 / Contact

Have a story that won't sit still?

info@heyfakira.com IMDb Instagram