Interview | Anuparna Roy: ‘I am working on a prequel to Songs of Forgotten Trees’

ANuparna Roy made chronicle at the prestigious venezia take fete this twelvemonth by becoming the first Indian filmmaker to win the Best Director award for her directorial debut, Songs of Forgotten Trees. In an exclusive interaction with HT at the recently concluded International Film Festival of Kerala, where her film also premiered, the writer-director talked about the film's reception in India, and how she is hopeful about the future in Indian cinema.The response to Songs of Forgotten TreesThe director attended the festival with one of the film's actors, Sumi Baghel. The screening of the film began with a packed theatre, and the director sat for the chat on the sidelines, balancing a cup of coffee wrapped around her fingers. When I ask her about the experience so far at the festival, she says, “So far, it has been amazing in India. I like it because after creating something, one always feels the urge to showcase it to the people around them, in our own country. I am getting to interact with a lot of audiences, and I am loving all of it. People are rushing towards her (Sumi), and talking to me… all of it. I am so grateful, it is amazing.”She adds, “Every time I come here, I get nervous and end up watching fewer films. But this time, I have watched Nidhi Saxena's film (Secret of a Mountain Serpent), Triveny Rai's film Shape of Momo. Amazing films. I am so glad to share the festival experience with these female filmmakers… and we are all in this process of learning together. It is beautiful.”After Venice, Songs of Forgotten Trees was screened at the BFI London Film Festival, Cork International Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival of Sydney (IFFS). Songs of Forgotten Trees has been produced by Bibhanshu Rai, Romil Modi and Ranjan Singh. It has been co-produced by Navin Shetty and Anuparna.It follows the story of two women and how their lives get intertwined in Mumbai. It is about Thooya, a migrant and aspiring actor, who survives the city by leveraging beauty and wit, occasionally trading intimacy for opportunity.Reactions to the film outside IndiaHer film has a poetic English title. Is there a difference in the way the film is perceived outside versus how it is seen here in India?Anuparna instantly says, “The difference is huge. Outside India, the reaction is very overwhelming… because sexual identity is not a big deal anymore. Here in India, it is a big deal.”“People cannot talk about it openly; they cannot express their feelings about each other openly,” she adds. “Even in heterosexual relationships, there are so many problems. Caste, religion and whatnot. Two men or two women coming together is a huge thing here. That's not an issue outside, and that is also how they have accepted the film far more open-heartedly than here. But that being said, I am pretty optimistic in life, and I hope that things will change. Time has changed, and the kind of cinema we watch has changed. It is an era of new cinema, a new kind of storytelling, and experiments.”‘This is a very personal story for me’I tell her that one of the defining aspects of the film is its tenderness and how lyrical it feels in sharp contrast to the circumstances of the characters. Anuparna agrees that she wanted the film to be tender.“This is a very personal story for me,” she says. “Somehow, I felt like Thooya and somewhere I felt like Shwetha. There is a point in life when one falls in love and one does not see gender. When I was making the film, I was sure what I wanted in it and what aspects I did not want to include. I have always been drawn to the tension between these two characters. I always wanted them to be physically aloof from each other.”“In an Indian society, these two women do not know how to express themselves. Slowly and steadily, they progress, and that journey is tender. I wanted those parts of the film, inside the apartment, those dealings with men, in different sectors, the detachment, to be tender,” she adds.Anuparna says, “I did not want these two women to kiss each other. Initially, I did think that, and I would not deny it, but then I realised that this was a stereotype. So yes, I corrected myself. I deleted a scene where they try to kiss each other… so yes, for me, filmmaking is all about evolving. I have evolved during the process of making this film.”“I also did not want to showcase Bombay. I hate showing the locals and the rest of the world, the voice-overs, all sorts of things. I wrote a poem, and that was the voice. Every element in this film is very personal, from the actors to the scenes; it was all there,” she smiles.‘I have thought of the aftermath of this relationship’What's next for her? The director says, “I am very much making a prequel of Songs of Forgotten Trees, and then the sequel. I have thought of the aftermath of this relationship. I am working on another film, which is about a bar dancer. It is a different film.""But I am excited about the prequel because it will have Jhuma Nath inside it, and I am shaping that story; a lot of it has stayed with me,” she concludes.