My connection to India goes way back to over 20 years. But to be precise, after my first feature film ‘Avé’ premiered in Cannes in 2011, I was looking to develop a new script. I was in Brooklyn and by chance picked up William Dalrymple’s book ‘Nine Lives’ in a local bookstore. I became fascinated by the themes it tackled— from art, tradition, modernity to sexuality and friendship in the complex and dynamic India of today. I optioned the book in 2012 with the idea of creating a documentary but gave up the project to develop ‘The Shameless’. Though it is a completely fictional story, I have to acknowledge that without ‘Nine Lives’, this movie would never have existed. And for that reason, I’m grateful to William Dalrymple. But the story in the book and the film are completely different.

While shooting the documentary in the Belgaum region of Karnataka, I observed the interactions of the central character, a 33-year-old real-life Devadasi called Reshma, with her best friend, Renuka, a sex worker in her thirties. It was incredibly touching and tender. The kind of emotional support that these two women were able to give each other in a very harsh world is what made me think of the story of ‘The Shameless’. Several women who come to these communities work under the relative protection of a quasi-religious system. So, I imagined what if a woman on the run, who has committed a crime, enters this community that operates by its own sort of rules, and rebels against it? That’s how the central character of Renuka (played by Sengupta) was born.

I take a long time to cast the leads for my films. I worked with Parag Mehta, the casting director who was recommended to me by Anurag Kashyap. Although I had shortlisted some extremely talented and well-known actresses for the part, I wasn’t convinced. I was so discouraged that I was contemplating making it as an animated film for adults. Then an Indian producer and a director I know said we have a friend who makes these very interesting drawings and maybe we could work together to develop the animated characters. And this is how I befriended Anusaya on Facebook. I would keep looking at her photo and knew there was something about her; a certain charisma that was suited to Renuka. The idea of the animated film was struck down by the sales agent and the producer, but that initial connection with Anasuya remained. The making of this film took so long — almost 12 years — that it almost drove me to insanity but the character of Renuka was the biggest hook for me, and it kept me going.

I don’t speak Hindi and wrote the script in English. Translating the dialogue into Hindi proved to be a major challenge. I tried to work with several different translators and writers, and they were taking it in a different direction or adding Bollywood clichés. Ultimately, it was my production designer, Parul Sondh, who stepped in to translate and knew exactly what I wanted. We shot it on a very, very low budget in Nepal. The financing took years, with small chunks of money from different countries like Switzerland, France, Bulgaria and Taiwan. And finally, an Indian production company came on board just six weeks ago!

Growing up in 1970s Bulgaria, because of the links between India and eastern bloc countries, we watched a lot of Bollywood films. I remember as a kid, just bawling as I fondly watched ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ maybe 10 times. Back then, as a kid, it was either Russian war films or East German Westerns, which is funnily enough a contradiction in terms, or Bollywood. But I don’t watch mainstream Bollywood movies now. However, there’s been a wave of refreshing, new voices in Indian independent cinema in the last 15-20 years. Some that have stayed with me include ‘Killa’, ‘Liar’s Dice’, ‘Newton’, Anurag’s ‘Black Friday’, and ‘Court’.

I could only make the film from my own perspective. It would have been foolish and ignorant of me to try to make an Indian film from the perspective of an Indian director. I tend to focus on the universal aspects of the story, no matter where the story takes place. Ultimately, stories are what connect us. Also, it worked because of my sincere connection to the subject matter and all my Indian collaborators. You don’t make a film alone.