Arati Kadav on Sanya Malhotra-starrer Mrs: ‘After a point, it felt more like activism than a film that would help my career’

“Harman (Baweja) stopped asking even for a glass of water after seeing the original film. He felt he was being entitled. He strongly wanted it to reach the audience,” she added.

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Arati Kadav hopes that Mrs can contribute to change in society. “Even though you hope that people will watch the film and change, we are also realists. We know that mindset change doesn’t happen overnight because of one work. But, all this adds to a collective conversation that can bring about that change. It’s like each drop is important to make an ocean,” emphasised the director.

Mrs. received widespread recognition at international film festivals before premiering digitally. When asked if there was any discussion to take the theatrical route before OTT medium, Arati said, “It wasn’t a collective decision. It was the journey of the film itself. Initially, even I was also slightly keen about a theatrical release because we had already travelled to festivals with such a good response. What has happened is that even people are not sure how theatrical will play out, it’s a risky proposition.”

She continued, “It’s clearly not filling the checkboxes of a classic masala film. We felt slightly safer putting it on OTT. I really hope that the film does so well that it comes out in theatres, maybe on Women’s Day or any other day, as a limited release or something. I really wish that can happen. Never give up hope.”

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Sanya Malhotra’s Mrs recently made headlines for failing to mention technician credits in the trailer and description on YouTube. Commenting on the same, Arati said, “I think there were too many parties involved. I also checked and saw the slate when it was released. If you are putting an end slate, you might as well put the crew name. Why won’t we? It was an unintentional error. Good that it was called out because it was immediately corrected. Gradually, it has become a norm that technicians are not credited in trailers, etc, but it should be done. I am all in support of that. They should get their due credit.”