Shared Values & Stories: Honouring Yasmin Ahmad

The Malaysia–India Heritage Society (MIHS), through its outreach arm the Malaysia–India Heritage Group, actively organises programmes promoting cultural diplomacy between the peoples of Malaysia and India. These initiatives, organised in collaboration with the High Commission of India and the Indian Cultural Centre, highlight shared heritage and values through history, arts and culture. Recognising film as a powerful medium for cross-cultural engagement, the Society has, since its founding, been curating screenings of classic films to foster mutual understanding across narrow identities of nation, race, religion and ideology.

After a hiatus, MIHS will resume its film screening initiative in 2026 through close collaboration with the High Commission of India in Malaysia, the National Film Development Corporation (New Delhi), and the Asia-Europe Institute, Universiti Malaya. The planned Indian Film Festival aims to promote appreciation of timeless values embedded in Indian film classics across multiple Indian languages. All films will be presented with English subtitles and screened in Digital Cinema Package (DCP) format to ensure high-quality viewing.

As a prelude to the Indian Film Festival, MIHS will collaborate with Universiti Malaya (via the Asia-Europe Institute) and Persatuan Yasmin Ahmad in presenting a special screening featuring a curated selection of television advertisements produced by the late Yasmin Ahmad. Widely regarded as one of Malaysia’s most influential creative auteurs, Yasmin Ahmad is renowned for her deeply humanist storytelling, articulating universal values such as empathy, compassion, multiculturalism, and social justice through intimate everyday narratives.

Her iconic advertisements and films—Sepet, Gubra, Mukhsin, Muallaf, and Talentime—challenged ethnic stereotypes, foregrounded marginalised voices, and reshaped Malaysian screened media as a space for cultural reflection.

The Film Festival celebrates universal values in screened media, with a tribute to Yasmin Ahmad serving as a timely and symbolic starting point.