“I didn’t want to make a sad film about women. I wanted to celebrate their spirit that makes us a wife and that gives us hope” says Leena Yadav about the project which she could make happen after so many struggles. Director Leena Yadav who talks about her internationally acclaimed upcoming film Parched.
Tell us about your upcoming film Parched?
What do you want to know (Laughs). It started off as a discussion with lots of women about varied issues and finally what I found very interesting was that I found that in the villages women speak much more freely about sex, much more evolved & honest than we do and we think we are more progressive in the cities. So just breaking that myth of you know that they are more backward and we are more progressive. But there is so much more honesty & reality there, so it started from there and then we had many more conversations with women than I wrote the first draft of the script and send it to my friends across the world and I realized that the subject matters that we were talking about in Parched had a universal reservance. My friends didn’t even react to it like a script they wrote back more stories that I know this women in New York. Her story is just like Lajjo’s story, or her story is just like Bijli’s story or Rani’s story. So that’s how the film started expanding. Two things happened one is that it starts getting more & more rooted in the village but in terms of the idea and what it was saying it expanded a lot.
Why the title Parched?
Parched means thirst. And initially since we were going to start with our film festivals I wanted the English title which people could connect with. So we got the name Parched. We always had the intention of keeping a Hindi name later whenever we would release in India but the thing is that Parched itself became a brand and people knew that whatever little awareness there was, it was about Parched so we didn’t want to change the name ultimately. So people are calling it Parche, Paarchad and then all kinds of things but its fine. I think we have introduced a new word into people’s vocabulary. But Parched was so correct for the story which was about thirst for freedom, thirst for sexuality and thirst for liberation.
So this is your 1st International film?
I don’t know what is an international film. It’s an Indian film which has traveled a lot internationally and released in lots of countries and got a great reaction.
What challenges you faced while capturing the essence & the beauty of a village?
They were not challenges. It was beautiful and one just wanted to do justice to it and we had such an amazing cinematographer Russell Carpenter who shot Titanic. The fact that he had never been to these kinds of villages there was such a unique thing for him so he saw that with a lot of love and he saw a lot of design in everything. So I think he brought that love that he felt for that visual into his visuals.
You traveled to an area Kutch in the west of India in Gujarat and striked a conversation with women about their lives there? Tell us one story that moved you to tears or that confirmed your decision of making this film?
So again & again I keep saying though I did start my research there. The research expanded to the whole of India. I got lots of stories from Mumbai also and from across the world. So Kutch was just the beginning of the story telling. The film is not rooted there. One such story I remember is about a women that we met who had a lot of bruises. And we were all sitting and having fun & laughing and I asked her does your husband beat you up? Why are you bruised? She says ahhh lets not talk about that we are having so much fun right now. Then I realized this is the spirit that I want to capture in my film. I don’t want to make a sad film about women. I want to celebrate this spirit that makes us a wife, that makes us hope.
The film has a lot of dark subjects but at the same time it is hopeful & lighter also? How did you balance that?
That’s because of that woman whom I met who told me that oh I don’t want to talk about that. It happens every day. We are having so much fun right now let’s have fun. And I think we are all like that. Just because we are going through a bad time does not mean we sit sadly at home. We try to find happiness. That’s what life is all about. It is a very difficult tone to create which is what everybody in the world over has reacted that you are saying so many dark things but you are saying with so much of lightness & celebration. That we have never seen such a combination. So while scripting it also I was very apprehensive because you have a scene where that girl is being beaten and in the next scene she is laughing with her friends. But I wanted that so it was very tricky and I didn’t know till the end whether it will work but it obviously did work.
How did you convinced your cinematographr Russell Carpenter to come on board?
I had sent my script to Russell’s partner Donna who is also a novelist, a beautiful writer. Russell ended up reading the script and he reacted very sensitively to the script. He was very encouraging and he says films like this need to be made. I don’t think we could have afforded Russell Carpenter. It’s not that kind of a budget film. He was very gracious enough to afford us because he reacted so beautifully to the content. So anybody in the film has actually come on board because of the script.
How was the experience of working with him?
Outstanding. I say the least. It was an extremely learning experience for me. I have done my 1st two films with my husband who is also a brilliant cinematographer. But this time since Aseem was going to produce the film. He said I don’t think I should be doing both the roles together. So I was very upset with that because we have a great working relationship. And he said I will bring somebody on the job who I admire so you will not have any reason to complain. And he managed to get Russell carpenter to do the film. So it is amazing.
What challenges did you face while making the project?
I faced many challenges like I remember going to a lot of villages whenever they saw me. They said we won’t allow you to shoot here. Because they said if more women like you come here, our women will get corrupted. Because they will see women can be like this also. They don’t have to put a ghunghat and hide behind a man. So they were very threatened by this female presence. They were not happy to let their women see this side of women. So I was rejected from lots & lots of villages till we finally found a village in Rajasthan where we shot the film. Starting from that I think every film has challenges not just on a big scale but also on a day to day level. So we had all those challenges. Also shooting completely in the back & beyond in a village where people are not very familiar with shooting happening. But I had such a brilliant team that I think we just moved beyond the challenges. We were all so passionate about wanting to make the film.
Your husband and you invested all your life savings into the film. It was a kind of gamble. Tell us about that?
This is the most beautiful gamble that I have done in my life. I think once you started nothing could have stopped us. I think once in your life when you find “The” thing that is coming from the heart and which has all your honesty in it. I think you have to put everything up at stake.
How did you get Bollywood actor & director Ajay Devgan to support you when so many people were not ready to finance this kind of cinema?
Aseem has worked a lot with Ajay over the years and I also have the fortune of knowing him. At one point I was writing a script which he was going to direct which never happened finally. So we have been interacting with him over the years. There is a lot of love & mutual respect between us. So I think Aseem spoke to him initially that we are going to do this. I am sure he thought it was the craziest thing we were doing by making this film with no support & nothing. So he came on board and said if I can be of help. Not only did he come on board but he also gave the seed money to start pre-production and said tell people I am associated with the project so that it will give the project a little more weight. And then we found Investors like Gulab Singh Tanwar & Rohan Jagdale who are not traditional film people. They are private investors who actually came on board because they believed in the vision of this film and they believed that this film should be made. So actually we attracted all the right energies & the right people into this project who from the time had come on board they just have been a huge amount of support to all of us.
Your journey was not easy, it was full of thorns and now the film is finally releasing. People all over the world are appreciating it. So how do you feel about it?
On top of the world ( Laughs). It feels like everything was worth it. That’s why when you asked me about the challenges. I know when I was living it they were big mountains we were climbing every day. But now when I look back seeing when you reach a rightful and deserving end to something you really forget you know memories are very interesting. When you are living it, it’s the worst thing that is happening to you. But when you reach a better space you say it was not that difficult. Similarly with Parched I know we climbed a lots of mountains to make the film but like I said because we had the most beautiful team & the most beautiful support from all the producers. It does not feel like we had too much of a problem now. Because of all the love we have got across the world.
The audience these days is very impatient. What all efforts did you make to get them hooked or engaged onto the screen?
I didn’t do anything. I have not made this film keeping the audience in mind and keeping anything & everything in mind. I have made a really honest film from my heart and from all our hearts. Because film is a very collaborative process. It’s not one person’s journey. It is so many people’s journey. So we have just put in our best and I think now I can say it is not a gamble anymore for me. Because I have seen this film with audiences across half the world literally. I have been travelling for a whole year with this. I am very confident. This film speaks to people. If this film speaks to people in Sweden who have nothing to do with our culture and people come out saying this is my story how can it not speak to audience in India.
Are film festivals a better way to promote such kind of Cinema?
Not promote. I would say it is educating for a filmmaker to be able to go and see your own product from another perspective. So firstly it is an educating journey for the makers to see the product which is so rooted from a small gaon ki kahani from India. But somebody across the world the way people are reacting to it. So it makes you realize that films can actually transcend all boundaries of language and everything else. Because it’s a pure language of emotions. So if you connect with that you could be watching a Turkish Film and feel that it is happening in your backyard. And yes it creates awareness and you can realize that the world is a really small place.
When people leave the theatre after watching the film. What do you want them to take back home?
I want them to discuss things amongst themselves. Our film is not at all a blame game. The villain in the film is our conditioning. Things that we have just accepted generations after generations. For example a daughter-in-law who gets ill treated by her mother-in-law the moment she becomes a mother-in-law she does the same things to her daughter-in-law. We need to break those cycles. Come out and talk about it honestly. Like it or hate it. Just discuss it & come out of it. Celebrate yourselves as human beings beyond any specified gender of men & women. Let’s all just unite in humanity.
