The Fakir of Venice is currently making the rounds at festival circuits and is gathering a lot of praise in the international media. The Hollywood Reporter sums it as 'A dark Indian comedy that could potentially reach a broad art-house audience.'

One more reason for Farhan Akhtar to be thrilled about the prospect of his indie film which might help him land a big international project. Initially Homi Adjania (director of Being Cyrus) was to make the film as the film is based on his real life experience, but somewhere along the line the film newbie Anand Surapur came along and made this film his directorial debut.

The story of The Fakir of Venice is about an art installation at the famous Venice Biennale, a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years. An Indian Mr. Fix-it (Farhan Akhtar), who executes challenging assignments for film companies, is hired to find a fakir - a holy man who can perform feats of endurance - to be completely buried in sand by an Italian "artist."

Adi Contractor (Farhan Akhtar) finds instead a poor laborer, Sattar (Annu Kapoor), who has performed this act in the past to earn coins from tourists. They get a free ticket ride to picturesque Venice and try to over stay their sojourn but fate has other things in store for them. Long forgotten Veejay Kamal Sidhu is also in the film.

Says Anand about the film, ‘Its been long made, and this was the film that made Zoya sit up and take Farhan as the lead in her debut film Luck By Chance.’

Although he isn’t too sure about a mainstream release for the film in India, he defines it as a bittersweet film that many might like, if they give it a chance. That chance will come only if they are willing to accept a ‘weird and strange film,’ in his own words.

If it does not make it to Bollywood, the Venice-bound film will surely make a dent in the art house arena.