Making Sharmajee Ki Beti get green lit was extremely difficult, says Tahira Kashyap: ‘I was so delusional with my idealism’

 

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Tahira’s journey as first time feature film director was full of learning and struggles too as she was too passionate to care about commercial viability at the beginning of her journey.

She said, “As a first time feature film director, I think there is so much of passion that comes from such a pure heart and its not corrupted at all, I didn’t really care about budget, algorithm and commercial viability. I wanted to make a film that I was passionate about. I had these women, and had their amazing stories to tell and also my way of telling is with a little bit of humour. And I know these are my women and they might be funny, but they have many things to say. I never thought of writing a role for a 25 or 22-year-old girl, or that I should write a boy’s character so that I can get more budget if I will have a young hero. At that time, I was so delusional with my idealism of the project that I wanted to simply make it without paying heed to anything else.”

She then detailed, how it is extremely difficult to get green light for women-led films.

“Now that I go to pitch and when I get so many feedbacks, I realise it is so difficult to make a film get green lit on the basis of just women being in it. I will not not shun away from saying it is very difficult to make a film with women in it. But, I will not put the entire blame on the producers, they are only going to put money on what the people want to see. Unless and until the people are not going to be open and willing, it’s not going to change. They have made it a stereotype that a film with five women and one of them being 35-years-old, it is definitely going to be boring.”

She added, “‘Housewife hum nai dekh sakte’, not realising that they could be funny. One of them could be a killer. They are interesting. Women exist beyond the spectrum of 22-28-year old. They have been existing as 18, 16 and and a 13 years old and they exist 45-50 year old women also and they can be interesting and intriguing too. So my idea that came from, it was just that women in different age groups and they have compelling stories to tell.”

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Tahira, who was titled “Grandmother of her class” in her nursery report card, finally found her collaborators in Applause Entertainment, Ellipsis, and Prime Video.

She said, “It did take time but I finally found collaborators, people partnered with the same vision whether Applause, Ellipsis or Prime Video, all these collaborators believed in the vision of the film where there are five women and I take immense pride in that. We are seeing a story of this five women, uncorrupted, undiluted by the societal and stereotypical norms and these are the people who really believed without the commercial viability coming to the picture.”

Citing the examples of Crew and Gangubai Kathiawadi, Tahira said it is in the hands of audience to make it easy for a women-led film to be made more often.

 

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“I just think the audience haven’t been exposed to entertaining, engaging women-led films. I think not just one film, but it will take 10-20 such films do such amazing box office numbers for it to become a precedent ki ‘acha theek ha, ab yeh ho sakta hai’, I think there is a commercial viability. Nobody is individually responsible for it. I know the best of the producers, directors and filmmakers who are great feminists. They believe in the story written by women, they believe in the talent which is behind the lens–also a woman. I just feel that its the audience at the end of it. If they buy tickets for 10 more films such as Gangubai Kathiawadi and Crew, they might make more stories,” she concluded.

Sharmajee Ki Beti, starring Sakshi Tanwar, Divya Dutta, Saiyami Kher, Vanshika Taparia, Arisa Mehta, Sharib Hashmi, and Parvin Dabas, revolves around the lives of Jyoti, Kiran, and Tanvi, all with the common surname of Sharma. In the film, they will be seen navigating urban loneliness, societal pressures, and gender expectations. The film with a touch of humour, promises a heart-warming tale of resilience, aspirations, and coming-of-age.

The Tahira Kashyap directorial film is all set to stream on Prime Video from June 28.