Pinky Promise – A Story That We Decided to Co-Produce

Suvadeep Biswas
Jul 21
5 min read

Directed by Mukesh Manjunath and starring Naina Bhan and Yuktam Khosla, Pinky Promise is a short film that leans into one of the most emotionally charged dilemmas faced by young Indian couples: What if your parents changed the way you see the person you love?

It’s a quiet, layered exploration of identity, intimacy, and the inherited biases we carry without realising it. At its heart, Pinky Promise is about love that tries to survive in the in-between, between generations, between cultures, and between what we’ve been taught and what we feel. And that’s what made it stand out to us.

How Pinky Promise happened - A note from our Creative Lead

“Permit Room has been a media channel I have followed for quite a while, and on a random day, I discovered Avanti Cinema through one of their podcasts, and that's when I felt they were focusing on a niche that has not been very out there in South Indian mainstream media. Indie films/filmmakers have always been very outside the 'industry' (for the right reasons) and are not as celebrated as they deserve to be. In bits and pieces, Hindi, and Malayalam, Marathi to a great extent and a few other regional industries have some phenomenal filmmakers that emerged from indie spaces only to go on to making mainstream 'masala' films, which is a interesting career curve for such promising talent. Only a few have managed not to get swayed by the attractive nature of money and fame that comes with the mainstream film industry.

Permit Room, in their little way, have tried shedding light on this topic, which heavily resonated with me, and that's when I got in touch with them, and we eventually met to discuss how we can collaborate. Pinky Promise was one of the projects that was brought to me by Vijeeth, one of the producers at Permit Room Media, and it did resonate with me. I then met the PP director and producer, and after some robust conversations and negotiations, we were brought on board to be the co-producers for this project. It was an exciting collaboration as Mukesh and Richa mainly led the campaign and promotion of it. Permit Room Media seemed like a suitable distribution platform for such a story, so we all got together and made it happen.”

Richa (Executive Producer, MadHouse Movies) said: Excellent, smooth experience with 1830. They empower their creatives and stand firmly behind their producers. Lucky to have found such trusting, steadfast partners.

Vijeeth (Executive Producer, Permit Room Media) said: Permit Room loved the professionalism that the 1830 Crew Films brought to Pinky Promise. Due to the clear communication of deliverables and their timely execution it made it easier for us to stick to the timeline. Permit Room would love to partner with 1830 Film Crew and definitely sees a promising relationship with them.

The Power of the Cast: Naina Bhan and Yuktam Khosla

Casting Naina Bhan as Leela and Yuktam Khosla as Sundar was a game-changer. They didn’t just play roles, but they brought real emotional depth to the screen. Naina captured Leela’s inner conflict with quiet power, while Yuktam gave Sundar a heartfelt vulnerability that made their love story hit even harder. Their chemistry felt raw, real, and completely believable. Together, they carried the film’s emotional core and made a 15-year relationship feel painfully authentic.

Why You Should Watch "Pinky Promise"

If you haven't seen "Pinky Promise" yet, it's a must-watch for several compelling reasons:

Relatability: It tackles a dilemma that many, particularly within Indian society, will find deeply relatable.
Emotional Depth: The film is an emotional rollercoaster, offering moments of tenderness, frustration, and ultimately, hope.
Strong Performances: Naina Bhan and Yuktam Khosla deliver powerful, convincing portrayals.
Thought-Provoking: It prompts a vital conversation about love, family, and individuality.
Compact Storytelling: As a short film, it delivers a complete and satisfying narrative within a concise runtime.

Film Performance and Strategic Outreach

The film's performance has been nothing short of phenomenal. Having premiered on June 6, 2025, on The Permit Room's YouTube channel, "Pinky Promise" has already garnered an impressive 233,513 views and over 6.3k likes in just over a month. This rapid growth in views is a clear indicator of its strong resonance with the audience.

The promotion of the film by popular influencers such as Ritvik Sahore, Ahana Kumra, and Rag Mayur was a key stroke. Their endorsement helped reach and engage the target audience effectively, creating significant buzz and driving viewers to the film. This strategic outreach amplified the film's visibility significantly from day one.

Why did 1830 Crew decide to co-produce Pinky Promise?

We were at a phase where we wanted to actively pursue impactful stories, regardless of language, genre, theme, length, etc. We just wanted to be a part of powerful stories. Although Pinky Promse was not a typical 1830 Crew kind of project, it definitely presented us with an opportunity to cast a wider net and get seen by bigger audiences. And we got just that. The Permit Room was an excellent platform as they had great subscribership, and team Pinky Promise put up a campaign that gave us a great boost on the days following the release. With this, we are hoping filmmakers get to see us as their potential collaborators and reach out to us with some epic stories. We are actively looking for creatives all over the world to pitch their stories to us, and hopefully, together we can be a part of some powerful stories that deserve the right treatment.

We have been collaborating with filmmakers for over 7 years, but have taken our time to come up with a project after our big win with Aavasavyuham in 2023. It did take us a while to digest that amount of success, so we took our time and have now moved on and hopefully are grounded enough to make sensible decisions going forward. In the meantime, we also started building a marketing agency in a disruptive model and built a creative collective mainly catering to education and sports brands. This was mainly done to strengthen our financial position, and we have seen consistent growth in 1830 Crew Marketing for the 16 months that it has been here in the UK. That's when it gave us confidence to hop back to our core strength - stories. As a part of that, PP came our way, and we certainly are proud of co-producing Pinky Promise as a part of that plan and are excited to be presenting our next, Inspired By Brum, this August. It's made some noise already with being nominated as Top 50 of The 5th ColorPro Awards by ViewSonic, and was officially selected for Lift Off Global Network: Sessions, and our in-house Content Lead being a key driver for making this happen is a matter of pride for us. We also have some projects in the pipeline, so we are certainly keeping busy, so watch out for this space - 1830 Crew films to stay updated.