Maiden Flight

Much like Kala’s earlier works, the protagonist of the tele-series, Ananya, is a female character. While having a show with a woman in the lead is also Indian television’s mantra, the writer explains that Ananya will not subscribe to the image of the regular soap heroine. This strong and nuanced character exudes a silent confidence. “Unlike many other shows, where the heroine has a dream and the show is about her journey to realise it, Airlines begins with the woman having achieved her dream; she’s already a pilot,” says Kala.

In such a case, it’s the setting of the workspace — dominated by men — that will allow for the storytelling. While researching for the show, Kala met many people who felt that women don’t make for good pilots. She also came across an airlines professional who conducts proficiency tests for pilots. He mentioned that women aren’t good at making snap judgments — an important factor in flying. “Now that’s a grounded bias. In such an industry, where women are mostly considered for ground staff or as air hostesses, how will a woman pilot operate? Will she continue tapping into her masculine energy in order to tough it out, or will she relax and release her feminine energies at some point too? That forms the crux of the show,” says Kala.

Her personal experience in the hospitality sector helped Kala, as well. For instance, it gave her an instinct on how Indians — used to domestic staff — treat people who serve them. Unlike a banker-client relationship, their approach towards people in the service industry is far more condescending. The show is designed to be episodic as the personal stories of the characters run parallel. The costumes for it have been styled by Mumbai designer James Ferreira.

While working on it, the burden of peripheral issues in television writing came to her as a surprise. “My vision is cinematic, but television comes with budget constraints. The challenge was to make a cinematic impact on a limited budget. So I had to amp up personal drama without the crutches of a great visual,” she says. That both the channel and the production house didn’t interfere with the content by insisting on the dumbing down of emotions as often happens on Indian television, made the challenge worthwhile.

With the show’s promos set to go on air soon, Kala is glad that she resides in Delhi and is removed from the pressure of weekly TRPs. While the reception of the show will decide if it will have another season or not, the writer, meanwhile, has four film scripts in the pipeline. One of them will reportedly be directed by Siddharth Anand for whom she earlier wrote Anjaana Anjaani. There’s also a novel set in Burma, inspired from her recent travel to the country.

“Although I work with all mediums and am keen to explore theatre too, I primarily consider myself a novelist. No other medium allows the kind of freedom in terms of content and the one-on-one connection with the audience as books do,” she says.