Gauri Shinde’s directorial debut English Vinglish (2012) was a raging success, commercially and critically. A film that marked late Sridevi’s comeback, its impact was such that schools were taking students to theatres to watch it, women found the inspiration to start their own business. While the filmmaker doesn’t remember much of this, 10 years later, the obstacles she faced to make the film remain fresh in her mind.

“My decision to make my film with a female lead met with a lot of resistance. It was about a middle-aged woman wearing a saree. These were odds nobody would want to dive into. There was no violence, no sex, nothing that would set the ball rolling very easily. We went through hell,” the filmmaker tells us on a call from London.

The film’s story revolved around a housewife, played by Sridevi, who can’t speak English properly and is ridiculed by her husband and kids for the same. Her journey of coming into her own forms the rest of the plot, and this is something producers wanted to alter.

“They wanted a superstar as her husband. Then, they said we should not shoot in New York. They wanted me to compromise, they wanted Sridevi to dance because she is Sridevi. They thought she should do an item song. I said I would rather put the film aside and not make it. Then, Balki (R Balki, filmmaker-husband) decided we should produce it ourselves, and that’s how our production house was formed,” says the 48-year-old.

The inspiration behind the lead character, she says, is her mother. The latter ran a spices business, and that’s how the maker chalked out the character of a woman who managed a sweets business. Shinde recalls how her mother would often say that if she knew how to speak English well, her business would have flourished. “English is almost like a deciding factor in our country. People don’t think you’re cool until you can speak it,” she says.