Shonali Bose on love, loss and how her new film, which premiered in Toronto on Friday, rounds off a trilogy of sorts
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 16, 2019)

After her debut film, the National Award-winning 2005 drama Amu, followed by Margarita with a Straw nine years later, director Shonali Bose recently returned to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with her next. The Sky Is Pink is the love story of a couple—Aditi and Niren Chaudhary (Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar respectively)—who lose their daughter Aisha (Zaira Wasim) to pulmonary fibrosis. Rohit Saraf plays their son. The film premiered at TIFF on Friday, September 13, and that leads to the first question:

The Sky Is Pink was the only Asian film in the fest’s Gala section. How was it returning with a hat-trick?
It is a huge honour. I have a special connection with Toronto as this is where I started the fundraising drive for Amu (headlined by Konkona Sensharma) and also got help to release it. When I came back for screenings in Canada, a Sikh taxi driver refused to take money from me, saying, “You’re the Amu filmmaker, I can’t take money from you.”

During a screening for the Sikh community, a lady sitting next to me was sobbing. Later, she said, “Bless you, you’ve given me healing and relief.”

All three films have got emotional responses. After watching the rough cut of The Sky Is Pink, Cameron Bailey (Artistic Director, TIFF) admitted that he felt deeply healed, having lost his mother just two weeks before.

What kind of reactions did you get at the world premiere last Friday?
It was a spectacular night with close to a thousand fans on the red carpet. We entered the Roy Thomson Theatre and I introduced my cast and crew to an audience of 2,000 people. It was so special.

We heard them sniff loudly, laugh, go still and silent. We got a standing ovation and TIFF old timers told me they hadn’t seen a response like this in years. We went to Soho House and hung out until 3am. I kept smiling and saying “thank you”. People couldn’t stop praising the film.

The real Chaudharys were also at the premiere. How involved were they with the film? Were you nervous about screening the film for them?
Yes, they were there and hosted a dinner event for us last week where everyone got very emotional. I was not at all nervous about showing the film to them because they had seen the rough cuts. I’d have been terrified otherwise! The first thing I showed them was the scene of the day their child dies and how each of them reacts. They watched it while I stood outside the edit room nervously. When they came out, they hugged me and wept in my arms, saying that I’d captured it exactly as it happened. It’s difficult to capture somebody else’s memory about the loss of their child, I know how it is, having lost one myself.

Is that why you were drawn to their story?
My film is related to my son’s (Ishan; right) death, in a sense that I, too, have lost a child and so, understood the emotions deeply and could write easily about two parents and their grief. I was drawn to Aditi and Niren’s story because I found it inspiring. I saw them as carers for their daughter, inspiring thoughts that they came up with, like life has to be lived to the fullest and just because there’s death looming over your head doesn’t mean that you succumb to it. Aditi wanted to put on Aisha’s grave, “She lived” and boy, they did know how to make their daughter live!

The story moved me, and I was ready to explore the subject. I feel like I’m filled with light and love over the death of my own child. It’s a wonderful vehicle through which I bring out another layer to the issue of death, which, maybe, the Chaudhary family didn’t have.

Did you miss Ishan while making the film?
I don’t miss Ishan because he’s with me 24/7. He’s the light, love and the fuel of my life, like my younger son Vivaan. Both my children are equal to me. I don’t miss Ishan because I never have to say goodbye to him anymore. I cry when Vivaan leaves for college. I miss him but Ishan is with me wherever I go. On his birthday, on January 20, 2018, I got a text from Sid (producer Siddharth Roy Kapur) that Priyanka had finished reading the script and wanted to meet me. I laughed when I read the text because I knew it was a sign. The world premiere happened on the day he died, September 13. There’s something uncanny in the way Ishan blessed me and this film all the way.

How did Priyanka and Farhan deal with complexities of their characters?
I think the script was gold for both Priyanka and Farhan and a lot of it is all written, so it was easy for them. The workshops helped. I also told them well in advance that I’d need rehearsal days. I really enjoyed working with these actors and had formed an emotional bond with them, including with Rohit and Zaira, which you see in the film.

Priyanka borrowed from your stories of Ishan, even referring to Rohit’s character Ishaan as Ishlu, your nickname for your son. Were these scenes difficult to shoot for you, specially Aisha’s death scene?
Thank you for asking this question. It’s so beautiful that you’ve noticed that Priyanka called Ishan “Ishlu” which is not a name Aditi calls her son by. Priyanka heard me calling my Ishan that when I spoke about him and asked me, “Can I call him Ishlu in this scene?” I just smiled from ear to ear.

Another emotional shoot was when she had to break down after a scene. After I called “cut”, I hugged her and she couldn’t stop crying. She kept whispering, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I know now what it means to lose a child. I am so sorry for Ishlu.” I continued holding her.

Getting back to your question: Was it difficult? Not at all. After Ishan died, I spent an entire year doing what I call “grief work”. I took my pain in my own hands and I just sat with it. When you do that you transcend your pain, and that’s what happened with me. As a result, I am in a place of complete acceptance of his death and feel his presence with me so much that I don’t miss him.

What’s next for you?
I can’t think of my next film while I am finishing one. All my three films are fresh and original; they are a trilogy in the sense that they are all about close, beautiful mother-child relationships and death. But I think I will end with this subject after this film and move on, perhaps to a comedy. I’ve made people cry enough, I think now I need to make them laugh a lot.

The actress’ directorial will be screening alongside Julia Roberts’s Ben Is Back and the Dev Patel-starrer, Hotel Mumbai
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 26, 2018)

Nandita Das’s second directorial, the Manto biopic featuring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the controversial author and playright Saadat Hasan Manto, has been selected under the Special Presentation category at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), alongside Julia Robert’s Ben is Back and Dev Patel’s Hotel Mumbai. Nandita is understandably thrilled, pointing out that she has been to TIFF as an actor many times since her first film, Deepa Mehta’s Fire in 1996. “But it’s been 10 years since my last visit and I’m so looking forward to being back, that too with Manto. Festival director Cameron Bailey had seen the film in Cannes and seemed to have liked it but till the announcement is made, you can never assume. TIFF attracts an engaged and enthusiastic audience — both international and the diaspora,” she says.

She points out that at its core, the film is an intimate story about a writer and his struggle to express himself, honestly and freely. “It is a film about convictions and courage, against a backdrop of violence and displacement. In times when identities are being defined by nationality and religion, Manto goes beyond these divisions and therefore his story, I feel, will resonate universally,” she asserts, adding that she made the film primarily because she finds the story most relevant today and it is her way of responding to all that we are grappling with.

Her only regret is that she will be at the fest for a short duration as there is a lot to be done for the release thereafter. “But I’ve never left a festival without watching at least one film and I’m sure I will squeeze in some time for it this time too,” she laughs, unsure about which film it will be this time.

Ask her if being screened at such prestigious festivals will help the film during its release back home and Nandita retorts, “In India, when people talk about festivals, they are either full of awe or full of disdain. We have turned festivals into two things: a benchmark to gauge a film’s credibility and/or push it into a niche, elite space.”

She however believes that festivals are a good platform for films from all around the world, for professionals who get to meet each other and cinema lovers to have a good stimulating time. “Yes, they also create a good buzz back at home, and today, in the midst of so much news and noise, it is not easy to be heard. For me, the India release is the most important thing and anything that helps in spreading the word, I am happy with,” she states.

Will Nawaz be walking the red carpet with her, you wonder, and she informs that he will be needed here, for the lead up to the film’s release in India. “Also, most festivals only budget for the director!” she says. So, what will she be wearing? “I wonder why even as a director, one is asked this question. I have so much on my plate right now, that what I am wearing is my lowest priority. I will probably end up wearing a sari as it requires the least amount of thought and I love wearing one anyway,” she adds, saying she is more curious about the audience feedback.
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Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; July 26, 2018)

A day after Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyaan and Manto — helmed by Nandita Das — were selected for the Canadian fest, the latter tells midday why the honour is a crucial one. “The TIFF attracts an engaged and enthusiastic audience,” says the director, whose film has travelled to Cannes and Sydney. “I am looking forward to seeing how this audience responds to the film after we’ve taken it to other places. Films like Manto [based on the life of controversial Urdu poet Saadat Hasan Manto] transcend boundaries. After all, emotions are universal. While Manto’s context is local, his story should resonate with any audience. There have been Mantos in every era and in different parts of the world."

Having arrived at the festival on multiple occasions — even presenting her first film, Fire, in 1996, there — Das admits turning up as director for the second time is special. “The world premiere of [my directorial venture] Firaaq was held there in 2008. I can’t believe it has been 10 years.”

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 28, 2016)

Konkona Sen Sharma's directorial debut, A Death In The Gunj, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentation Section. "It's a great honour and I'm really excited. I was thrilled to get this beautiful email from Cameron Bailey (artistic director of the festival). It was like 'OMG! Somebody understands my film.' When I was writing it, I was so nervous and apprehensive, convinced that nobody would give me the money to make it," laughs Konkona who debuted as a director in 2006 at the Kala Ghoda Film Festival with her short film Naamkoron.

The script, penned by the two-time National Award-winning actress (Mr & Mrs Iyer, Omkara) herself, was one of the nine shortlisted by the National Film Development Corporation of India for their Script Lab and mentored by creative director Marten Rabarts. Konkona who is hard put to categorise her first feature as a director, says, "It's a human drama, a story of a family from Kolkata visiting retired parents settled in McCluskiegunj over a span of seven days," she says.

It revolves around Shyamal Chatterjee (Vikrant Massey), aka Shutu, a shy student who uses a road trip to the old Anglo-Indian town now in Jharkhand as an escape from his failed semester. In the week that follows, his quiet unravelling is initially overlooked by the family revellers, until the holiday ends with an implosion. "There's a lot of me in the film which is an amalgamation of personal experiences. It's a world I have grown up in. I spent a lot of my childhood in McCluskiegunj and there was a strong feeling of nostalgia while making the film," she admits.

McCluskiegunj, the Anglo-Indian Utopia that took birth with 300 families in the 1930s, began to fade by the late '70s with only 30 of the families remaining while others, post Independence, migrated to bigger cities, and some abroad, in search of better prospects, leaving the town to its original tribal inhabitants. Like the two marginalised groups— the Anglo-Indians and the Adivasis—who struggle to integrate with mainland India, the protagonist Shutu too, while belonging to neither, finds himself increasingly alienated from his own world.

Produced by Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey who are making their debut as producers, and presented by Ashish Bhatnagar and Vijay T Swami, the film was wrapped up in just 31 days, an impossible task for most Bollywood filmmakers. "But this is not a fullfledged mainstream film so we didn't have the luxury of time or money. You get big budgets only when you have stars and this being my first film, I opted for brilliant actors. All the performers were extremely talented without me having to worry about any of them. We had workshops prior to the shoot when we got to know each other well and when in Ranchi we all lived together for a month," she reminisces. Besides Massey, the film features Ranvir Shorey, Tanuja, Om Puri, Kalki Koechlin, Tillotama Shome, Jim Saarbh and Gulshan Devaiah.

The shoot turned out to be a family holiday of sorts. Since his father Ranvir is also acting in the film, Konkona took her fiveyear-old son Haroon and his nanny along. And what was it like directing Ranvir? "He's a fine actor," smiles the actress who faced the camera for the first time at the age four and has done over 40 films in Hindi, Bengali and English since. She is the granddaughter of Chidananda Dasgupta, film historian, critic and cofounder of the Calcutta Film Society along with Satyajit Ray, and daughter of National Award winning actress-filmmaker Aparna Sen. Has her mother seen the film, "Yes, and she liked it apparently," smiles Konkona.

So what's the best thing about being a director? "I guess the fact that you can create your own world. Right now though I'm struggling to finish the post production in time for the September unveiling in Toronto," she says.