Exploring Creativity and Activism: A Conversation with Madhureeta Anand

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Hi, this is Kiran Manral and I'm back with the other episode of Chasing Creativity. Today I have with me Madhureeta Anand who's a very multi-faceted person. She's a writer, she's a filmmaker and she's recently launched Free for Safety which is a safety app for women. Welcome to the podcast, Madhureeta.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Hi Kiran, so happy to be here.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And as it does happen, you know, a very idealistic, I'd gone to boarding school and there is to paint.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean that I still love Art. I actually had a very good teacher and he really led us to show us all the art and he, I think he taught us to see.

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_00]: My family also has a very creative, my uncle used to actually take black and white photos and develop them in the house.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean my father died when I was seven and we moved to my grandmother's house.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And there he was, you know, so I think that's where the love of the image perhaps started.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Also we lived right opposite Plaza cinema, okay, which is a big cinema in Delhi. And every Friday at the time there's to be these posters that used to be actually brought down and put up.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And so we used to watch that whole process of it going up and sort of coming down and everything.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_00]: So somewhere I guess somewhere, you know, how it is in your subconscious is okay, there's lovely images, people are interested in images and storytelling.

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And then later when in school I started to, you know, took art as actually as a subject, I really understood it, I really understood how images work and how important they are.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I came to college and I read Karl Marx and was just, I'm going to village and that means I took a dream from there was really something.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I actually went and lived in a village in Uriza as part of her actually it was a program for students.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00]: But I went there and refused to come back and then my parents had to send for me and then there was a holiday where I slept and said, you know, you're like booze, you know, this whole thing going on.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_00]: So I think somewhere I wanted to combine art and activism that was my very naive thought.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And at the time that I joined filmmaking like you rightly said, like the only thing really you could do was do the shun, you know.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And at the time in Jami we were the last batch that were paid to study.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah because it was a former social work, nobody's going to make money doing this.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a thing. He's very interesting because at that time film was what it was one feature film every weekend, you know, and there were X cinemas and TV had a limited amount of content and we just got the, you know, the Rajini's and the, you know, those lovely homologues when we were young and gang.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: When we went school, you know. So we had just it was it was just beginning to open up but the thought was like I was so discourager remember a lot of people sitting me down and telling me it's a mistake to try and be a filmmaker.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But you know as a beautiful women we I don't know why we're so willful and I don't know why we're so convinced what we always are aren't we absolutely.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And it always does turn out okay in the end. That's what yeah so you know, we're both sitting here. So it must.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, and it was so funny, you know, it's like time and place and I think I'm a product of that.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Because in the second year suddenly you had satellite TV which was completely boomed. It was unheard of and then a BBC wanted to produce something in India and, you know, everybody wanted to come to India and do something feature film still took some time but TV was just opening up like mad.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And suddenly at the end of those two years, you know, first we got the statement to study and then at the end of two years everybody wanted to hire us, you know, and pay us these fantastic salaries.

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, all these big companies that you see today, you know whether it's Amazon or you know, via com or TV at any of these a lot of the people who are really senior are from these firms schools.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay because there's nobody else right? Nobody understood the medium where would you go to get somebody to be a reporter.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so yeah, I mean, I just came into it and started in the beginning with TV. Actually for one year I worked in a studio because I had this thing in my mind like I really wanted to do a lot of work and get my craft sorted out.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So over thinking even then, but anyway, but I did that and I think what it did was aid paid me really well because I just was in a studio and they were very grateful that I don't know.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I got to make it. I thought they were very grateful because some train will make a knot just, you know, somebody.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So and I came in then I got charged to do things from beginning to end and they were not these were not pieces of works of art, but they were, you know, a film on the forestry department for example, you know, the women had the first expedition to the Everest women or something.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And I did a documentary on that and I mean, I didn't go with them but of course I got the footage. So I'm saying that it was suddenly I had my hands on the craft and felt really confident after a year then I joined drug of the hell you know, I was one of the, I would say not the first few, but I'd say there may be the second or third lot who came in there and started TV 18.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And it was a lovely atmosphere and TV at the time. It was not like it is now.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_00]: There was some amount of idealism and there was still like filmmakers doing that job and we were really worried about how something was framed and you know, we weren't that.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So I did that for a while. I did TV TV lots of weight and then it came to a point where TV really started to get become TV.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_00]: It was usually satisfying to me as a creative person. And at that time I never forget because Raga actually said to me, you should do fiction and I felt like I was being expelled.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I say it's trying to get rid of me and he doesn't want me around. Why is one middle-do fiction?

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: But he probably saw something in you that exactly, it was more, yeah, it's a good for fiction.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean now looking back as a person who's done a whole lifetime of this, I do look at some of my initial work and think I was just actually doing fiction.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I was interested in facts but then I wanted to represent them. If with the, with the netitorials you know with my own we are thinking about it which documentary actually you shouldn't do on documentary.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So anyway did that and then I formed my own company with my ex husband at the time and started doing a lot of documentaries.

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay and these were essentially for networks abroad. So BBC and Channel 4 and things like that.

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_00]: One a bunch of accolades along the way and then realized that there's kind of a glass ceiling where documentary Indian documentary produced by a Western network.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Because they want to see a certain India.

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: You know it's kind of fair. Like I don't want to go to America and see the same thing I see here, I'd like to see something that I can't see here.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And so they want to really interested in the independent women. They want to really interested in the modern stuff.

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: So I ended up doing a lot of work in the area of culture and religion.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_00]: It was in design. I just ended up you know you do one and so comb mayors and a lot of time with the Nagasaki and a lot of time with these in this world and it was eye opening for me.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And you know as an urban woman and even though I did documentary and I did live in the village, we're still essentially quite quite an urban person.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So with my own ideas of how things work and this really threw me in there and a whole world opened up.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And I do remember being at the first coma and you know, I'm sure it's a case with you. We at the time got married quite early and I got quite early and all that.

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So my daughter was at the time four and I left her behind and I went to shoot at the coma.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I'm not a regular girl. It just remember that time thinking this is sort of magical you know.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_00]: The magic part was really to do with the fact that it was religion but it was just not really religion.

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm you know, it was more.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_00]: It was something much deeper going on. It's hard for me to explain it and nothing to do with I'm not a religious person and spiritually as but I'm not religious but I felt something there.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And you see the discipline with which people come over the amount of love they come you know and it's kind of beautiful like it's a boy.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_00]: It's chaotic, it's beautiful and it's like a microcosm of our country. I think it was about then I really really got to know my country and started to fall in love with it you know.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And then you know it went on and I just felt like I'm not going to go much further and I just want to take a little suggestion to talk about a very important episode in my life that that guided my creativity.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: So he at the point didn't tell me who it was which is said there's a filmmaker and his entire crew in the coming to shoot and not only do you have to kind of coordinate but do a little assistant work.

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a bit like you know I don't know without a sister and I'm just I'm a director myself when I was having this you know.

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Little did you know it'll did I know.

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_00]: So then I asked him for the list of crew because you know you have to get a clear edit customs on us so forth.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And anyway to cut a long story short I thought it was he was joking and I said could you just send me the real list because this is his burner or his organ come on child up easily it's him.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So I spent the next five days panicking or even a state of shock yes I was panicked.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I was just completely like when he's standing in front of me.

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_00]: What should I do like you know I was thinking imaginary conversations with this man and.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So of course but what you know luckily what happened was that you know another loop of some sort.

[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd done some.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Taro card reading side no why I was doing taro card reading side but I was more talented.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I was just really interested in you.

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Going everybody's tried this nonsense and sometimes I'm having something.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_02]: No, no, I haven't actually read the taro cards but I keep seeing the installaries which keep telling me some deers going to return into my life some.

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_00]: To come back to one come back to one.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So anyway I done some taro card reading score a man who actually was running the airport.

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_00]: So I called him and I said, you know, this is gentleman coming in he's very special and you just cannot make him wait at any point.

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Again it was a time when you could do this stuff. I guess if I did it today, somebody put it on Twitter and everybody would get fired.

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: But it was not, it was not to tell yet anyway, whatever it was so he got off the plane and I was able to actually go not to the tarmac but you know the little vestibule when they come out

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: and bring him he was highly impressed. Actually being her dog is that's the kind of stuff he would be and his actually his half-brother and his manager

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Lukis depotik. He manages everything so he's lovely lovely lovely man anyway to cut a long story short

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_00]: her dog arrived and all the lift hands are air hostesses which is fainting in India of course nobody had any idea

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and as Lakhud habit everybody's car came but not her job, you know because that's what filmmaking is actually such an enterprise

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_00]: that unless you're willing to throw your body through yourself body first into it it's not gonna happen

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_00]: and second thing he said to me was that facts are the accountants truth. Oh that's very very deep

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_00]: very loaded yeah facts are the accountants truth yeah so I could tell you that there are 20 people fell from a building

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_00]: it's a fact but the truth could be just something entirely different did they jump with it

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00]: pushed we don't know right that's a story to the truth that's right. So he insisted because it's and in the beginning you know when

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_00]: even at the time when he said it to me I took it like enough front it's like saying the truth doesn't exist

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_00]: it's my truth it's a kind of ego centric we are looking at it but honestly what he was saying and

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I have understood over the years which is so true is that on the truth don't go in then pretend it's not yours

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_00]: because God knows no matter how objective you are your truth will present itself and your truth is your truth

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_02]: and no one else can tell it exactly so if you don't own it who will exactly so if I if I present to

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_00]: you film and say I own everything or I could say oh it's a story you know and it's the I told it

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_00]: exactly as it happened. Then you're a reporter that's right you're a reporter you're an accountant yeah

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_00]: you just tell me just set the facts out yeah then there's none you're not a then you cannot be an

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_00]: author you're cannot be a person who has a story to tell how did your first story come about then

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_00]: so I was getting I had I was in a terrible marriage brother abusive and it was a very tough time in

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_00]: life and I do remember thinking about kind of idea of having a lover who doesn't exist

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_00]: because if something physically exists and you're in a very contentious kind of situation

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_00]: you could more or less use it as like it could complicate things like it really started to happen

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_00]: it would be at a time when my marriage is breaking in no time and secondly hard so

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I started to think about it and it just stayed in my mind and then I started noticing

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I started to question why my ex husband was jealous. Why it is that he was constantly telling me

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not there like he thought I was having enough air which I was clearly not and I just was so

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_00]: stumped by it but we separate it you know there's like a little relief there and it occurred to me

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_00]: that my creativity was just too large for another person to get because I had got together with

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_00]: and I was very young so that time my creativity was presenting differently then over the years

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd got you know done a bit of work got awarded got a sense of the world and my filmmaking and what

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted and it was a lot you know it was a trend in yeah he didn't understand it he he knew

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: something was standing between us we felt it was standing between us he knew something else was

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_00]: going away he couldn't put his finger on it and it's occurred to me that's a bit like having an

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: imaginary lover right something that doesn't exist but it does because I'm in love with something else

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_00]: although it's not a man it's still love okay I mean so that's how the idol came up

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah I literally wrote it in the wake of my divorce actually I wrote Kajaria at the time my

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_00]: daughter was born okay so it was written back then back then and then I parked it was too hard

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_00]: of him to make at that time so then I wrote my first film and I literally wrote it sitting in bed

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_00]: at the time my ex-husband and I got separated it was very tough time you know getting used to being

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_00]: single and a new world and everything so literally sat in the bed just sleeping next to me and I wrote it

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I wrote it and yeah then we got made which was a bit of a miracle okay that was just amazing because

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I made a short film before that so I did it I mean it's not like I just you know I'm

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_00]: well into it because a lot of people look at put you've done and think of you've been really lucky

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_00]: or whatever it's not like that one works very hard so I made a short film first which I really

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_00]: you know I sort of put my craft and art into it and it did really well it month festivals

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_00]: blah blah blah and then at the Mumbai International Film Festival here I won the Silver Conjure you know

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_00]: you know whatever it was called a walking on a moon beam it was actually a film about

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_00]: child sexual abuse but I dealt with it in a kind of retrospective way a woman thinking back to the time

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_00]: a child or dinner you know everything was short film it did very well so that film when it's

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_00]: you know I took it to studios and showed it and I had no experience of Bombay at all I had never

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_00]: worked in Bombay already always worked in Delhi I had always worked on the International Circuit

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_00]: my brush with Bollywood is very much like friends or people I knew you know or directors I knew but

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I had never worked here so I just did the brief thing off you know I had the script I wanted to make

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_00]: it and I moved with my daughter to Bombay and she was at the time I think maybe 7-8 or something

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_00]: like that and I think within about two months I had the film going you were ready to die for it now

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_00]: yes you're so right absolutely I was ready to die for it and I think that's when you sit in bed

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_00]: and write a script even though your marriage is falling apart because you're dying to do it

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and of course in retrospect now when I look back I know I was dying for it at the time I just didn't

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_00]: even understand what this longing was honestly it was just beyond me I just couldn't me and my

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_00]: work but I was thinking every time I separated from it I felt like a love had had gone on you

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_00]: know it was like a long game I can't explain to you like I just had to write it I just had to make it

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_00]: you know just let's get the crew together and make a short film you know it was it was just like

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I had to that image became so important that word became so important you know

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah and so then the film happened but I was I guess I didn't know Bombay at all and nobody knew me here

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and so it turned into the usual Bombay story you know you have that in the films you know somebody

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_00]: came at the rail station and they totally get stuck in the way of that and they just left in the

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_00]: now in retrospect when I mean now when I talk to people they tell me it's quite usual and you know

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_00]: it happens all the time also it's not correct but it does so I moved back then to Delhi and meet Kajaria

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_02]: tell us about Kajaria Kajaria is the one that has been stunning people all these years and

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_00]: he has to do so yes so my daughter was born in this nursing home which was you know sort of like

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_00]: these very well-to-two women and she was born a girl and no other girl was born so I started

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_00]: asking her no I was like you know it's just curiosity it's only see when another girl is born

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_00]: like what they look like like you know so we think you know and I had a cesarems it's been

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_00]: days so there were the rooms are changing every three days women were up there babies and even no

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_00]: girls being born so when it was like about six days like two three rounds had happened I

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_00]: call the nurse sort of said to me well then there aren't going to be any girl is born

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and I said why she said that one in that film she had a boy then she had an abortion and now she

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_00]: could have a boy again she said no come on it can't be like I just thought was this woman's crazy you know

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_00]: and I told my mother at the time she was a choir shouldn't say anything she didn't tell me it's

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_00]: true and thing I don't think she also really thought about it anyway went home that the whatever

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_00]: that life insurance thing that you want to get done and you know and he said please don't do this

[00:22:30] [SPEAKER_00]: LIC thing you know because I said do it for like 40 years or whatever he said no

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_00]: which chose his Shadhi say first it should much or not so why he says you know the born girls so

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_00]: and then some relative of my ex husband who actually was very furious with came in and said something

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_00]: like it would be better next time and I thought actually she's talking about this is Aryan so

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I started telling her about my car's and wounds put it to the iflamics so and he threw her out

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_00]: and I'm like what's going on so there's a series of these events and I just looked at my little girl

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_00]: lying there thinking it's it's ridiculous how can you say stuff like that two two years when

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_00]: she was a two years old I opened the newspaper and there was an interview of a reporter talking to a

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_00]: guy who kills baby girls and that interview was horrible because the interviewer is saying to her

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_00]: don't you feel bad doing this and she says I feel terrible and she said well then you know and

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_00]: so the questions are a bit like lecturing her you know so you should break out of it you should stand up

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_00]: and you should refuse and you know this woman is saying yes you're right you know she also doesn't

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_00]: know what to say to such a person but at the end she said something like look I am just a hangman

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_00]: somebody else is sentencing them and you know maybe you should speak to them and maybe in

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_02]: her head I don't know I'm just theorizing you she thinks she's doing the child of favor

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah I mean even the circumstances which a child would grow up yeah I you know so I did after that then

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I said okay what the hell you know so I started to write something around it but then I said I need more

[00:24:36] [SPEAKER_00]: information so I went in and I started speaking to you know people who work in the area

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER_00]: social organizations dies midwives people who who have actually aborted girls you know women

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00]: so so when all in all the factors that you create a situation where it just seems like a

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_00]: better idea to kill her like you said and you create a situation where you you have one

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_00]: and one gender with me having lost so to speak so a woman who has no career who has nothing

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_00]: has very few ways of winning and that's made clear to her you know a reproduction

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_02]: and what she reproduces and what gender with what gender exactly this film has gone all over the

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_02]: world yeah it's been at all the major festivals it's one cycle yes have you ever been tempted to

[00:25:51] [SPEAKER_00]: do something again in that specific space he has actually my next film it's called yellow light okay

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_00]: by it's not the specific space my the space is basically to talk about how society creates or

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_00]: or circumstances in the case of kajaria a circumstance creates a person a circumstance that was

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_00]: not of her making she didn't choose any of those circumstances she just picked from the five or two

[00:26:21] [SPEAKER_00]: choices that were given to her and mostly it was between death and that so she just chose life really for herself

[00:26:29] [SPEAKER_00]: but a lot of my themes revolve around kind of how we are how people are united

[00:26:39] [SPEAKER_00]: by circumstance or united by thought process you know so for example the thought processes that

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_00]: are inferior to boys the women don't really belong out in the world that women don't you know these

[00:26:59] [SPEAKER_00]: are these are so there's one woman who has totally bought it on the face of it kajaria she just buys it

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_00]: but Nira is pretending like she doesn't buy it but she it's not up to her right and Nira is

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_00]: the reporter the reporter in kajaria yeah that's right the reporter in kajaria she she's a modern

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Indian girl living on her own terms and thinks that's that's all she needs to do but really

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_00]: she's she's born in a time she's born in a place and those seriously restrict her choices

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_02]: seriously and it's a discovery we all make absolutely I think wherever you think you're urban

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_02]: emancipated whatever whatever but there are still some cages and some shackles around you

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_02]: not least so yellow line is coming up next is it is it ready and about to be released oh I'm

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_00]: in short it yeah you've written it and I've cast it and it's written like I mean it's too early to talk

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_00]: who's doing it but then please now the actors so I'm just looking for the money for it and this is

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_00]: a kind of a tale of three characters one who's a you know young woman with a startup no surprises there

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean although not young but you know younger woman and a man who lives in loutines Delhi

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_00]: and a prostitute yes so it's the story of these three people's lives and how they get united

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_00]: lovely on the yellow line on the yellow line the yellow lines are metro line right you know that

[00:28:40] [SPEAKER_02]: yeah in Delhi so lovely looking forward to that but the ambiguity is you are a writer

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_02]: you take your own stories on to film yeah when you write it's a very lonely process it's a

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_02]: process where you get into your own head and you work with your own demons when you're making

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_02]: a film it's a very collaborative process there's everything this the cast is a crew there's a

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_02]: producer there's it's like an entire circus how do you reconcile these two aspects of filmmaking

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_00]: writing is a nice spot you know because you always have control over what somebody will see

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_00]: over they want to see you know so a lot of people don't write because they're trying to write

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_00]: a perfect draft you know many people will write like oh right five lines and say it's not good

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_00]: you know so I don't do that I just write it is right I just write in the lot I just don't ever

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_00]: even bother about I've laughed at it but there will be something that will keep bringing you back

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_00]: so like you must do I'm always writing something at all times you know and there will be one

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_00]: thing which will keep calling you back you know and it is calling you back because there's something

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_00]: that you have to say which is happening which is like a your own thought process so I think a lot

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_00]: of the work of a writer or even a director is self discovery okay you have to spend a lot of time

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_00]: understanding what's important to you why are doing what you're doing it's very painful process

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_00]: you know you have to dig deep dig deep dig deep to understand and you know you're always doing that

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_00]: and then you can offer something to the world which is genuine you do this digging deep yeah

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_02]: you also have to layer your surface yes yes if you don't have depths of within yourself to dig deep

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_00]: yes can you be a creator yeah but it won it'll be a creator of a certain kind you know

[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of a lot of the creativity is defining what your creativity what creativity means

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_00]: to you because I think this creativity is not just writing as you well know

[00:30:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean I'm doing the app now that's totally creative as well you know in its own way

[00:30:57] [SPEAKER_00]: and as I you know because I had to you know my relationship with numbers when I was running a

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_00]: production house I never had to raise money from anybody I gave budget spent them and made money

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_00]: but with with with three it's different you know I need to be on top of my business plans and so on and so

[00:31:16] [SPEAKER_00]: forth so I have actually even personally been able to create like a story telling in numbers

[00:31:22] [SPEAKER_00]: but honestly if you want like this is it's funny you bring it up because today I was just

[00:31:28] [SPEAKER_00]: thinking about this that there is a lot of creativity people create things which are in in our space

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_00]: some don't even register some semi register some even sort of well known at the time

[00:31:45] [SPEAKER_00]: but what really last time is this is creators who dug deep to a universal experience

[00:31:52] [SPEAKER_00]: centered in the local space centered in the local space centered in your own in your own circumstance

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_00]: and as local as you get the more global you are because at the end of the day the the more

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_00]: rooted a story the more true it is for many other such people I think that's very important

[00:32:18] [SPEAKER_02]: I think everyone's chasing to get the perfect story out that international audiences can understand

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_02]: and you know water it down make it accessible make it understandable but what it does it just

[00:32:30] [SPEAKER_02]: dilutes the sense of the story so I love that you bring that point back I mean honestly I think

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_00]: creativity ends if you start thinking about who's reading it exactly exactly the moment

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_00]: if you are going to making the film thinking about who's watching it it's over then it's not a

[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_00]: creative then you're doing something like else you're doing like an ad you're creating a product

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER_00]: for a lot of things a product but I'm okay which is fine which is okay it has its place

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_00]: but of course you know we can ascribe to one or the other so mother Rita tell us a little bit

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_02]: free you just spoke about it and how it is also a form of creativity to found something to start

[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_02]: something how did that come to you because it's completely of course it's within the space that

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_02]: you do as a creator and a filmmaker but an app for safety is different from making films so how

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_00]: did that happen so first of all I've we all know that filmmaking is changing in storytelling is

[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_00]: hugely changing because you have to I mean if you like if you have all the devices and you don't

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_00]: use them then you're actually doing this service you know creative person you should be able to these things

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_00]: are just devices right so you know my daughter started going out I see pages too and I started

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_00]: looking for places ratings like two in the morning one day I was just trying to see whatever she's

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_00]: on whether this is safety rating it really infuriated me because they were ratings for ambience even

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_00]: but no safety ratings nothing food lighting everything and how safe it is no mention

[00:34:06] [SPEAKER_00]: then I started thinking why because safety is really supposed to be a personal issue of

[00:34:10] [SPEAKER_00]: problem it's not my problem but actually it's not up to you you can do nothing the only thing

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_00]: you can do is to not go out which is actually counterproductive right so anyway I thought as somebody

[00:34:23] [SPEAKER_00]: is gonna do this and I first try to get other people to do it who didn't listen and then

[00:34:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I just jumped in and did it that's what it happened it's like they were like telling me things like

[00:34:35] [SPEAKER_00]: women are irrational and what if they read badly I said you know but what do you mean they don't

[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_00]: sit in noobers and read they're rating all the time of course safety special and you know you

[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_00]: have to take care of it in a certain way but the ratings are totally valid you know so yeah that's where

[00:34:51] [SPEAKER_00]: started out then you know like it happens if you have a good idea you know so I was sitting with

[00:34:59] [SPEAKER_00]: in Palo Alto and my co-founder he was there and he said I'll build it for you

[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_00]: so we started at a friend who did the logo lovely and then another dear friend who's who's

[00:35:21] [SPEAKER_00]: around because we do have 15,000 downloads wow and the thing is actually freeze different from

[00:35:29] [SPEAKER_00]: everything else because we do safety ratings nobody else is doing it so we are actually generating

[00:35:34] [SPEAKER_00]: safety data for spaces, streets, areas everything so it's quite unique have you ever thought

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_02]: of collaborating with any governmental organizations for this yes I will I mean I think eventually once

[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_00]: we get volume we will we just now we need you know you need that million but of course we're constantly

[00:35:53] [SPEAKER_00]: in touch with law enforcement in fact in hyriana when we were doing a on-ground exercise you

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_00]: know I went to speak to the cops and he said look can you just rate some spaces unsafe as if we

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_00]: can't do it we will have to do it he says they're very unsafe and we don't have enough police force

[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_00]: we just don't want people to go there he's saying tourist you know the tourist at least should

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_00]: know there is sunset say I can't do that somebody's got a good rate I can't just turn rate you know

[00:36:20] [SPEAKER_00]: so they also looking for something like that and I will most certainly be doing that yeah all the

[00:36:25] [SPEAKER_02]: very best for that and finally I need you to tell me about your book that's on its way yeah so this

[00:36:30] [SPEAKER_00]: September hopefully October Krishna circus will be out and a story of a female superhero who comes back

[00:36:39] [SPEAKER_00]: from a head of time yeah it's it's real fun because it's it's it's all about sort of

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_00]: consent Krishna yeah so Kansas got Mathura in a dome it's hundred years from now and

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_00]: there is everybody else's dad and he has only mortals because there's a a stallige who said

[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Krishna will be born and will kill you and then Vaswan Dave Keekam and there is a gyna

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_00]: college just called you showed the house not given birth to anybody who whistles them in the child is

[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_00]: born but it's a girl Krishna's girl and then she has a tent a magic tent that goes back and forward

[00:37:24] [SPEAKER_02]: in time okay it's very interesting yeah I love it I love that you know you're writing a space that is

[00:37:31] [SPEAKER_02]: a little removed from your filmmaking yeah science fiction is fantasy it's like suspend your imagination

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_02]: and all those things but whereas you work with very rooted in real issues that women face yes you

[00:37:45] [SPEAKER_02]: do have the feminist angle yeah and women are becoming superheroes in your books all the very best

[00:37:51] [SPEAKER_00]: for the book thank you so much Kiran and really nice to have you pleasure and all the very best

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_02]: of me and whatever other work that you're coming up with next right thanks for coming on the podcast