Tisca Chopra: I would not like to be called a woman filmmaker

Lauded for her portrayal of Vanita in the short film ‘Chutney’, Tisca Chopra tells DH about her directorial debut feature ‘Saali Mohobbat’ which premiered at the 55th International Film Festival of India.

Bollywood actor Tisca Chopra, best known for her roles in films like Taare Zameen Par, Rahasya and Firaaq, has now donned the director’s hat.

Saali Mohobbat (Screw Love!), the actor’s directorial feature premiered at the 55th International Film Festival of India here on Friday.

The film is about a woman named Kavita, who, upon encountering her husband’s infidelity is forced to recount the story of another woman faced with similar challenges. “It’s a howdunnit,” Tisca told DH. “You know who has done it but the focus is more on how it happened. That’s the genre,” she added.

Radhike Apte, Divyendu Sharma, Anurag Kashyap, Sauraseni Maitra and Sharath Saxena star in the film.

Produced by Manish Malhotra and Jio studios, the film will hit OTT shortly.

Tisca is best known for her portrayal of Vanita in the lauded short film Chutney.

Excerpts from a short interview with the actor turned director:

You’ve been an accomplished actor. Why did you choose direction now?

It seemed to choose me, rather. When we finished writing the script of Saali Mohobbat, we narrated it to a few people. Everyone said, ‘You have to direct it’. I had directed a short film before (Rubaru) and produced three (Chutney, Chhuri, Rubaru). So it became a natural path to follow. Sanjay Chopra, my husband, Namratha Shenoy and I wrote the film’s script. I wanted to act in it. But direction came to me.

How was the experience directing your first feature?

Exhilarating! And so exciting that we were able to premiere at IFFI, India’s own festival and Asia’s biggest. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. We had the premiere two days ago and it was very exciting to watch it with the audience. Life has come full circle as a storyteller — you’re on one side of the camera and you shift to the other side as writer and director, it was very exciting. 

The number of female filmmakers in the industry are very few. What do you have to say about that?

I certainly hope that changes in the near future. But I don’t think any art form depends on gender. I think it’s gender agnostic — whether you’re a woman or a man, the point is you should know how to tell a story and be passionate about it. So it shouldn't matter but it has mattered. So…

As a woman filmmaker yourself, did you face any challenges?

I would not like to be called a woman filmmaker as if it’s some special quota category. I would like to be known just as ‘a filmmaker’. We had a good story and it didn’t matter to Manish either whether I was a woman or a man. It was the story that was good and that’s most important.