Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; March 21, 2018)

Director Sudhir Mishra is set to make a film on the life of late Bollywood film editor, Renu Saluja. She was his live-in partner, but “you can refer to her as my wife too,” says Mishra, who collaborated with Saluja on award-winning films like Dharavi (1993) and Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin (1996). “The film is my way of remembering her,” he adds. Titled Swaha, the movie will see Aditi Rao Hydari essay the role of Saluja.

“I have spoken to Aditi and she has agreed. It has been 18 years since Renu passed away. I have been toying with the idea for long. Initially, writer Juhi Chaturvedi was to work on the script, but things didn’t fall in place. I took over the writing and now have a producer [Sejal Shah] on board. The movie will go on the floors later this year,” says the filmmaker.

In the ’80s and ’90s, Saluja was one of Mumbai’s top-notch film editors. Her filmography includes Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda (1989) and 1942: A Love Story (1994), Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994) and Vinay Shukla’s Godmother (1999). Some film folk also turned to her to salvage their projects and make them award worthy. “She had that inherent knack; whatever film she touched turned into gold. Many of her movies bagged awards,” says Mishra, who doesn’t want Swaha to be an adulatory piece about her. “I am not making a film about a film editor, but a supremely confident woman who happened to be an editor. It is about my relationship with a wonderful woman. It will show her various facets.”

Saluja battled cancer and passed away in 2000. She was 48. Mishra wants to relive her days of struggle in the film. “I want to capture the moments when she started moving away [from me] to refigure her own life, which was coming to an end.”

Saluja was filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ex-wife, but Mishra’s film will not touch upon that aspect of her life. “Even after they parted ways, her and Vinod’s professional relationship continued. She passed away while editing Mission Kashmir (2000), which was completed by Rajkumar Hirani,” says Mishra.