MUMBAI : It took its time but Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s directorial debut Sharmajee Ki Beti finally arrived on Amazon Prime Video last week. The film had been screened at the MAMI Film Festival last year and had been heavily anticipated. Upon its release, the filmmaker spoke to DNA about the making, the long wait for release, and more.
Sharmajee Ki Beti followed an unusual path for a commercial film – from film festival to OTT. But Tahira says it aligns with the kind of films that she likes, “ It's a beautiful progression. It's the kind of ideology that I indulge in, like I watch film festival films, playing at MAMI and other festivals. So, this did did well in MAMI and now it's found a place and a home. I'm feeling very happy about it,” she says.
While the world is divided in its opinions between theatres and OTT, Tahira says the two should be divided by an ‘and’, instead of a ‘versus’. She explains, “I think they both are very exclusive, beautiful spaces that are there, and it just gives more filmmakers a chance to put across the stories. It's such a transitory period for everyone, which is beautiful because you're learning falling learning, falling, thinking, and rethinking.”
Tahira has written a number of other stories as well but she says she wanted Sharmajee Ki Beti to be her first film because how close she is to the subject. “This just goes back and transports me back to all the experiences that I had and also observed around. That's what all filmmakers and writers essentially do whatever they see, they exaggerate. This is very close home. There are five characters, five beautiful, strong women including the 13 year olds. And there is a part of me in each one of them. I have lived a part what they are living on screen,” says the filmmaker.
For now, the first-time filmmaker is revelling in being that, a first-timer, free of jadedness that comes with experience sometimes. She explains, “I'm just so glad that the world saw this film as my first film because there is so much of innocence of a first time filmmaker and a director. Other things take over as you start getting to know about the dynamics of the market, what do producers want, and what audiences wants. All that and the algorithm, it all that just gets into your head. But for the first time director, it’s my cinema. There was no corruption here.”
But during the making of Sharmajee Ki Beti, Tahira learnt that one can stay away from that corruption even after years into the profession. And the lesson came from Divya Dutta, one of her lead stars. She tells us, “Divya was doing the film as if she's doing it for the first time. I would ask her ‘Why do you have this energy’. I should be the one who should be intimidated. I thought that's so beautiful. What a long journey she has had and yet she is as excited to come on the set and be excited about the role and equally excited about the release. I need to learn I need this energy to preserve myself as a creator, as an artist and a director.”
Sharmajee Ki Beti revolves around five women, at different stages in their lives, and their dreams and aspirations. The farcical comedy has been praised by fans and critics alike. But Tahira differs with anyone calling it a ‘women-oriented film’. She explains, “At the end of it, you make cinema for everyone. Don't women do also go for films that have made men as protagonists? Yet, we don't have male oriented cinema. So why should it be like that? But nobody's been asking that.” The filmmaker says that with this film, she has attempted to go against the expectations that a film about women made by a woman needs to be serious and message-based. “There's so much more to women. In this film, it's a very light hearted, humorous take, very slice-of-life, feel-good-film. That's the genre. But that expectation is so cliché that I really wish that changes,” says Tahira.
Starring Sakshi Tanwar, Divya Dutta, Saiyami Kher, Arista Mehta, and Vanshika Taparia, and produced by Applause Entertainment, Sharmajee Ki Beti began streaming on Prime Video from June 28.
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Credits - DNA
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