Showing posts with label Ananya Banerjee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ananya Banerjee. Show all posts
It’s painful to read a bad script because I feel like my sensibilities are getting scarred-Rasika Dugal
8:19 AM
After Adhura, Rasika Dugal says switching on lights at night will no longer help dispel her fears
Priyanka Sharma (MID-DAY; July 9, 2023)
She is known as much for her choice of scripts as for her acting prowess. From Qissa and Manto to Mirzapur and Delhi Crime, Rasika Dugal has slowly but steadily built an enviable filmography. However, the actor feels “it has been anything but easy to construct a diverse showcase”.
“There are days when I have to reject work because the scripts are bad. It’s painful to read a bad script because I feel like my sensibilities are getting scarred. If I read five bad scripts, by the sixth one, I wonder whether I am liking it because it’s good or because the five before it were bad. That rattles me a bit,” says the actor, who has diversified her filmography with the genre of horror this time around.
Dugal, who is playing a student counsellor in the Gauravv K Chawla and Ananya Banerjee-helmed series Adhura, says the show gave her sleepless nights as she easily gets spooked. “The last horror film that I watched was when I was 10, and the next one that I saw was Adhura! When I read the script, I thanked the creators. ‘You have taken away my single recourse to fear—switching on lights at night,’” she laughs.
The Amazon Prime Video series, Dugal says, “goes beyond jump scares”. It was an opportunity to explore themes of grief in the garb of a horror show.
“It is a moving story about [everything] that happens in society. The unresolved sadness [in the story] made it harder to sleep at night. One day on shoot, Gauravv said, ‘You are a great horror series actor because you actually get scared, so your reactions are natural,’” shares the actor, adding that she has always been intrigued by horror as a genre.
“I feel it’s an extremely interesting tool through which you can say a lot about your fears. It is about unfinished conversations and unresolved grief. That, to me, is more painful.”
When Adhura's director asked me to watch a few sequences, I refused because it was too scary for me-Rasika Dugal
9:37 AM
Despite not being a fan of the genre, Rasika Dugal discusses why she signed up for the horror thriller Adhura
Letty Mariam Abraham (MID-DAY; November 6, 2022)
Call it an irrational fear or not, but for Rasika Dugal, the genre of supernatural horror sends a shiver down her spine. So much so that she has no qualms accepting that she hasn’t watched any scary film or series. “The last [psychological thriller] I watched was 100 days [1991] that featured Madhuri Dixit-Nene. I just shut the genre out of my head post that,” says Dugal, who wrapped up her first horror thriller Adhura, in May.
The decision to take up the series was a way for the actor to “conquer my fears”, but it was definitely not something that came easily to her. “When my director asked me to watch a few sequences, I refused because it was too scary for me. I am a phattu [scaredy-cat]. I asked them if it could wait because my husband [Mukul Chadda] was out of town and I didn’t want to come back to an empty house after that. Furthermore, I wanted to try this genre and see how it works out for me,” she says of the series that sees her playing a school counsellor.
Dugal credits directors Gaurav Chawla and Ananya Banerjee for guiding her through the project, but claims that sometimes she couldn’t comprehend their explanations. “To dispense logic and understand a scene, Ananya would tell me, ‘Like in a horror film…’, but I would look blankly at her because I had no [reference in my head]. I would tell her, ‘I don’t know what that means,” jokes Dugal, adding, “Gaurav and Ananya are two talented directors and I had a ball working with them.”
I got a message on Instagram from Gehraiyaan director Shakun Batra, says Doobey composer OAFF
8:12 AM
The last few weeks have seen the Indian independent music scene make a strong presence in Bollywood. Those who struck gold tell us how it happened
Nidhi Lodaya (MID-DAY; February 13, 2022)
For anyone who has been active on Instagram recently, the last few weeks have been owned by the songs of this month’s Amazon Prime release, Gehraiyaan. The title track and Doobey have made it to every second Reel. Interestingly, not Bollywood daddies, but an indie Mumbai-based composer-producer is behind it. “I got a message on Instagram from Shakun Batra [Gehraiyaan director],” recalls Kabeer Kathpalia aka OAFF. Batra said he had heard and liked his and partner Savera Mehta’s work.
This pair isn’t alone. Singer-songwriter Maalavika Manoj aka Mali, who divides her time between Chennai and Mumbai, has sung Maange Manzooriyan, a track in the upcoming Bhumi Pednekar and Rajjkumar Rao-starrer Badhaai Do.
Manoj landed the opportunity through music director Khamosh Shah with whom she had collaborated on an advertisement. “He called me during the lockdown saying that he was working on a film for which he wanted to pitch my voice,” she recalls. “For them to take a chance on someone new is actually quite refreshing,” she thinks. Manoj, who writes the lyrics to her songs, says it was novel to just turn up and sing.
Delhi-based singer-songwriter Kamakshi Khanna was on the vocals for Chhan Chhan Chhan from Kaun Banegi Shikarwati, Zee5’s latest series. Khanna has been part of the song Tere Jaisa from Kota Factory Season 2, but for Kolkata-based pop duo Parekh & Singh (Nischay Parekh, Jivraj Singh), it was their first brush with Bollywood when they came on board as composer-producer for the song. “Our entry point was through social media,” says Nischay Parekh. “We have been making music for a while and Ananya Banerjee [the lyricist] was a fan.”
While it seems that social media is the new place for musicians to get noticed, Manoj thinks the scene is crowded, cutting down your chances. “You have to know how to do things differently, tag the right people and be consistent if you wish to earn the attention of producers over time. Luck also plays a part.”
Parekh agrees that the bubbles in which Bollywood and indie music once existed have popped, and a healthy osmosis is underway. “We have been making the music we want to make, and Bollywood is now approaching us from a perspective that says that they like what we do artistically, instead of trying to change what we do.”
With Chhan Chhan Chhan, Parekh & Singh got to experiment since the show is set in Rajasthan. This required that they explore Indian instrumentation, something they say they wouldn’t do for the Parekh & Singh sound. “In independent music, we are usually asking ourselves all the questions and we don’t have genre limits to expand our horizon. So, it is nice to get somebody else into the picture to challenge our creative process.”
The big learning, he says, has been that, it’s important to edit your work. Khanna agrees. “There is no such thing as the final version that we can control. What actually ends up playing on screen is what’s final, and this has meant that we learn how to detach themselves from their work.”
Maalavika Manoj
Kamakshi Khanna. Pic/Nishant Singhani
Emmay Entertainment believes in empowering women storytellers
6:12 PM
Mitakshara Kumar, Monisha Advani, Madhumita, Kaashvie Nair, Madhu Bhojwani and Ananya Banerjee
BOMBAY TIMES (March 9, 2020)
For a production house where two-thirds of its leadership is female, Emmay Entertainment has taken the gender mandate further. Founded in partnership with filmmaker Nikkhil Advani, producers Madhu Bhojwani and Monisha Advani realised that in its ninth year, the company’s body of work has reflected agnostic genres — from real-life thrillers like Batla House, D-Day and Airlift, to massy dramas like Satyameva Jayate and Marjaavaan.
Conscious of upping the volume on content that represents women in a stronger, positive and empowered manner, they realised the answer was not just in the story; for that, they needed the right storytellers. The company has now signed four women directors with diverse film grammar and yet, an aligned agenda — inclusivity. These filmmakers include Kaashvie Nair (whose upcoming film will feature Neena Gupta, Arjun Kapoor and Rakul Preet), Madhumita (critically-acclaimed director of the award-winning Tamil feature film KD), Mitakshara Kumar (directing a period epic for an international OTT) and Ananya Banerjee (debuting with two web series this year).
Speaking on behalf of the company, producer Monisha Advani says, “We are committed to producing for an increasing number of women directors. This is not a diversity card. We believe their optics change the way we view any genre of cinema, be it action, drama or comedy.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)