Laadli turns 11
By Mrinmayee Ranade ( Editor , Madhurima)
It was a great
evening at the Essar House, celebrating 11th birthday of Laadli, a campaign for the girl child by
Population First.
A big crowd had
assembled to listen to five young women in Bollywood – not actors though -
Guneet Monga, Juhi Chaturvedi, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Jabeen Merchant and Pubali
Chaudhari. Guneet is CEO at Anurag Kashyap Films and producer of Gangs of
Wasseypur and The Lunchbox. Juhi is the screenwriter of Vicky Donor and Piku,
Pubali is screenwriter of Rock On and Kai Po Che, Jabeen is film editor of
NH10, and Ashwiny is director of Nil Battey Sannaata. It was pure joy listening
to these smart and practical and exuberant women, Dolly Thakore was in her
element, making them talk about themselves. What impressed me was there was no
bitterness, in spite of obvious horrible experiences. They could crack a joke
about themselves. And, they didn’t hate the men, neither particularly from
Bollywood nor generally. Actor Swara Bhaskar who joined the discussion towards
the end, was also candid about her experiences, especially with NBS.
 |
| The Panelist LtoR: Guneet Monga ,Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari ,Dolly Thakore, Swara Bhaskar, Pubali Chaudhuri, Jabeen Merchant and Juhi Chaturvedi |
Guneet has studied
producing and has started her career as an intern in 2004. She has worked as a
line producer too. She came to Mumbai in 2007, when she was all of 21. ‘I come
from a modest family, was an only daughter. I was learning dance in school, so
my father would ask me, ‘What should we tell people, that meri beti najti hai?’ I started learning taekwondo, meri beti marpeet karti hai . I started
playing the drums, he
asked, ‘What should we tell people, that meri beti band bajati hai ?’ So
the focus was how I would marry. My parents died suddenly, one after the other,
when I was 24. So I didn’t know what to do with myself. She worked with Anurag
Kashyap for a long time, that was
when GoW happened. Lunchbox was a different experience as it was a IndoFrench
joint project. ‘I don’t have lots of money, I help raise money for a film. So I
read the script, and am part of decision making at every level – casting,
marketing, etc.’ ‘The problem is nobody wants to talk money with a woman. That
too a young woman. I was too young to be heard, to be taken seriously, to
discuss money with. People would ask me, Mam, who is the producer? My family
thought I was gone into a dark space when I came to Mumbai, kind of haath se nikal gayi. However, now the same extended family is happy about her success.
Juhi, the writer of a
different film Vicky Donor, had just a one liner in her head for some time. A
man who sells his sperms. When she told the story to her long time Friend
Shoojit Sarkar, he laughed at her. But he came back 3-4 days later and said he
was ready to try it out. ‘When I started writing the script, I discovered the
multiple layers of the story. They were not originally in my head.’ But when we
went to talk to producers, uttering the word ‘sperm’ was becoming impossible.
The men just couldn’t take it from a woman. They couldn’t imagine where the
story would go to if it started with a sperm. So we said, the film is about
kidney donor!
Ashwiny has made many
ad films, and NBS is her first feature film. ‘When I was making a short ad film on the girl child for KBC, I went to
rural Haryana. During a break, a few women in ghoonghat started to speak to me.
They asked me if I was there with my husband, which I was not. My husband was
home looking after my twins. One of the women told me secretively that her
daughter was going to Gurgaon to study further. It was such a happy moment for
her, but she didn’t want the other to know. The Mukhiya of the village was
like, so what’s the big deal about a girl child being born? That’s when I
decided, some day, I will make a film about this. I would often think about
this. One day, my husband gave an idea, why not make a film in which the mother
and daughter go to school together? I had an example of this at home. My masi
studied library science at the age of 52 and then she taught in a school till
the age of 60. She was so happy about this.’
Jabeen, who has
edited a violent, aggressive film like the NH10, gave a good insight in the
world of editors. Margaret Booth, who was working with MGM, was the first woman
editor and apparently the term was coined for her. Editors were called
‘cutters’ till then. A big movie like Bonny and Clyde is edited by Dorothea
Carothers "Dede" Allen. Ideally I am involved from the beginning,
right from reading the script. There are more women editors than there are
women directors/producers. Women are better storytellers, so they are better
editors too. Jabeen had a point when she said, I had to ask myself am I being
one of the boys? What difference am I bringing in?
The one name Dolly
couldn't get right was Pubali's. Pubali is the typically fiery Bong Jadavpur
university-FTII product. (BTW, Pubali means Purvai, that
which comes from the East). ‘Rock On came to me just after I passed out of
FTII. I was friends with a rock band back in Kolkata, I knew how
difficult/impossible it is to bring together a band which has dispersed. So it was sort
of easy. However, my challenge was Kai Po Che, based on a novel by Chetan
Bhagat. Being from Jadavpur Univ and FTIi, I was definitely a ‘wannabe
intellectual’ and it was a challenge for me accept CB as an author. It took 18
drafts of that script to clear. It was difficult, so I am prouder of KPC than
Rock On. Arguments, disagreements are always there. But finally you want to
make the same film!
Talking of difficult
moments as a woman, Ashwiny talked about the shoot in Agra. ‘People were just
not used to having a woman director, they wouldn’t know how to address me. I
was called Sir in the beginning. Things cannot be calm and peaceful on the set
with hundreds of people, so I would get angry often. People couldn’t take that
from me, whereas a male director screaming abuses would have been totally
normal. Men can share a smoke, a drink and things are alright soon. Not so with
a woman director.
One experience she
shared was heartening. There was a young teenager girl as AD, on the shoot
where a real marriage procession was happening. People wouldn't even notice
her, forget about obeying her. But she did a good job. The line director told
Ashwiny in the evening, that it was the first time he had seen a girl AD and, he had this to add – “Ab jaake meri beti ko sikhavuga ki kya banna
hai .”
Juhi is from Lucknow.
‘I wanted to take admission in the College of Art, do a BFA. But my father was
like, what should I tell people, they don’t know what is a BFA? Do BA instead.
How will you get married? However, my mother who was keen to support me mainly
because she had never had her way. Finally, father said, he won’t pay my fees.
I was the topper in the entrance exam, so my first year fees were paid for from
the scholarship. Then I started freelancing for the TOI, so I never had to take
money from him after that. But he realized later what I was doing and what BFA
meant. He started taking pride in me and my work that was published.’ Juhi has
this to tell the young women, ‘you have to constantly prove yourself. The
family has to feel confident about you, that you will survive, that you will
not go astray. So not misusing the freedom is a great responsibility.’
Jabeen, the film
editor, wanted to become a writer, a journalist. But while studying at Sophia,
she realized that films were closer to her heart. Thus she came to the films.
Swara, all made up
and in stilettos, joined the discussion and was a hit immediately with her
bright smile and confident speech. ‘People think Amir Khan is a perfectionist,
but they don’t know Ashwiny. In the middle of a shot, she would stop everything
and tell a guy a kilometer away to change his gamchha!’ Swara said, she took
the script of NBW from Ashwiny only to be able to say no after reading it. However,
once she read it, she was totally into it. ‘The film was a big learning for me.
I realized that it’s okay to grow up, it’s okay to have kids, actors can also
be normal!’
For Pubali, the
toughest moment for any writer is in solitude. As it is writers are not given
much importance, so when you are a woman, things are more difficult. And when
you are alone, you think if it is going okay. Nobody sees that struggle you
have with yourself. ‘Writers are just told to write on the given lines, a woman
writer is all the more lower on the hierarchy. I smoke, I abuse too. But it
doesn’t help. Juhi added to this, men can sit together in a bar at the end of
the day and crack ideas. But with a woman, achieving this comfort level is
difficult, but without which you can’t work. So I tried to be as non-feminine
as I could be in the meetings. As it is the topic was sensitive, so I didn’t
want my gender to play a role as well.
Being a journalist, I
could totally understand this thing with ‘men sitting at a bar in the evening
and sharing a drink and ideas.’ So many women journalists feel left out for the
very reason. Cracking that code is very difficult, though not impossible.
Thus ended a cool
session, revolving around gender but not in a preachy, bitter, complaining way.
Thank you Popoulation First for organizing it, with the help of Avid Learning.
Congratulations for 11th birthday of the Laadli campaign. Here’s to
many more to come.
This blog post originally appeared on Mrinmayee Ranade ( Editor , Madhurima) blog. Click here to read the original blogpost
Click here
to read the blog in Marathi : http://mrinmayeeranade.blogspot.in/2016/06/blog-post_10.html
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