Shonali Bose’s 2005 feature film debut, “Amu,” won several awards, including the FIPRESCI by the International Federation of Film Critics, as well as two Indian National Awards for Best Director and Best Film. Bose turned this screenplay into a novel, becoming the only Indian to release her own novel and feature film at the same time. She was also the first Indian to win the Sundance Institute Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award for the screenplay of her second feature, “Margarita with a Straw,” which won the Best Asian Film Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, in addition to another 42 international awards.
“The Sky Is Pink” will premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 13.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
SB: “The Sky Is Pink” is the true story of an unusual and courageous family who face the illness and death of a child (Zaira Wasim). She is in fact the narrator, as a dead girl, of her parents’ (Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar) love affair spanning 25 years. She is utterly irreverent about them as well as about death. The film is as much about the magic of life as the beauty of death.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
SB: I lost my own son at the age of 16, two years younger than Aisha Chaudhary, this film’s protagonist. I ended my own marriage at that time. When I was approached by the mother to tell this story, I was immediately drawn to dealing with the subject matter of the loss of a child and whether a marriage will survive that or not.
I had done a lot of emotional and grief work around my own loss and felt extremely peaceful about it. In fact I feel the lightness of death — a gift from my son to me. I was excited to delve into these emotions.
People think it’s cathartic, but not really. Catharsis through your art is only when you don’t deal with tragedy in real life and choose to do it subliminally through your creativity.
I dealt with my son’s death head-on. I held the pain in my hands and in my heart every moment of every day until I transcended it. There is a beautiful saying by Rumi, “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” I’d like to add to that — “If you let it.”
You can also choose to shut down emotionally and block your pain. I chose to ride it and that changed me permanently. I started writing my previous film “Margarita with a Straw” — also at TIFF in 2014 — on my son’s birthday, four months after his death. I was able to celebrate that day with as much joy as if he were there. It took courage and work, but I did it.
I even celebrate his deathdays with complete ease. In fact, I am euphoric that the world premiere of “The Sky Is Pink” is on the 10th deathday of my son, September 13. That is not a coincidence! That is my son showing me still that he is with me and watching over me. Our mother-son bond only deepened with his death.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
SB: That deathdays are like birthdays — to be celebrated! That death is not something to fear and is not the end of your relationship. That life should be lived fully in every moment as you never know when it can end for you or someone you love.
We get caught up in the “busy-ness” of life — in careers and nonsense stress, and forget about the real things that matter. Only death of a loved one slows you down and gives you that sudden realization. Why wait for that?
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
SB: The film was shot over one year, even though it was just a 42-day shoot — exactly like my other films. I am used to shooting at one stretch. The challenge of having months between different schedules is many-fold.
One example is that five cinematographers shot this film! Another is that you are far away from the intense rehearsal prep time with your actors. Stuff has happened to them in between and you need to bring them back that place with very little time to do it.
The advantage is that you get to know them better in their real lives and deepen your relationship. I have always had closeness with my actors, but never as much emotional intimacy as in this film with all my four leads. And part of the reason is definitely that I had a whole year with them.
But perhaps the biggest challenge was cracking the Hindi dialogue for the film. I write in English. And everyone, from the producers to the actors, was in love with the English script. Yet we were making a Hindi film.
As late as the submission for TIFF, the backbone of the film, the voice-over — was still in English and in my voice! That’s how Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of TIFF saw the film! But finally Nilesh Maniyar — who also wrote the screenplay with me and is the executive producer on the film — was brought on board to attempt this and he came through with flying colors.
However, this being in the last minute has seriously impacted our post-production schedule. I have never had a situation where the mix of the film is starting two weeks before the festival screening! At this time of writing I am terrified if we’ll make it in time!
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
SB: My previous two films — “Amu,” which also played at TIFF and the Berlin International Film Festival, and “Margarita with a Straw” — were indie films. Finding the money and getting them made was the hardest part. Impossibly hard, because the subject matters were genocide, disability, and sexuality. “The Sky Is Pink” has just been a breeze in that respect.
I was getting prepared to make it as an indie film. The aforementioned Nilesh Maniyar was going to be Creative Producer. He had just pitched my script at the Talinn Film Festival in 2017, and won first prize there, and got interest from European producers. Around the same time I got a call from the office of one of the top producers in India, Siddharth Roy Kapur, asking if I had any scripts.
Kapur had watched “Margarita with a Straw” and loved it and wanted to know what I was doing next. I said I didn’t think they would like my script as it was about death. They insisted I send it. Kapur read it in two weeks, and called me in, and said he absolutely loved the script and would make it — if a major star came on board.
I told him my first choice for the female protagonist was Priyanka Chopra. In fact I had tried to reach her for many months myself and given up. He of course had no such trouble. Her manager got her to read it right away. On my dead son, Ishan’s, birthday — January 20 — I got a message from Kapur that Chopra had loved the script and could I fly to New York to meet her.
I was in L.A. at the time. My son always gives me gifts on his birthdays, deathdays, and my birthday! I knew right away that the film had his blessing and was happening. Chopra and I hit it off immediately, and the rest is history. This is a fully studio-backed film and the first time I have not had to produce or worry about how to feed my crew and finish the film!
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
SB: Unlike many filmmakers, I didn’t grow up thinking I wanted to make films or in fact have anything to do with them. I was a theater actor through school and college, but was serious about academia and social justice. I wanted to be a teacher/activist or lawyer/activist.
After a radical undergraduate degree in History, with major student activism in India, I came to Columbia University for a Ph.D. in Political Science. I had a full scholarship for seven years. But I quit after my master’s degree because I found the department too conservative.
I worked for a year as an intern at Manhattan Cable TV, as well as The National Lawyers Guild as the National Organizer of their chapters. I realized through that experience that I could create more impact through the medium of film or TV than law.
But I was still unsure about being a filmmaker at the time that I was accepted at UCLA’s film school. In fact, had I not got a scholarship, I would have declined as I didn’t have the money or desire to take loans.
The moment I made my very first short film — a two-minute film on 16 mm film — I knew that directing was my calling. I loved having an idea about something that moves me and being able to get actors to evoke that same feeling in audiences.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
SB: Best advice: To be true to my own authentic voice. That I do have a voice that is unique and should not be afraid to just stick with that.
Worst: To allow the box office to dictate my cinema and compromise my artistic integrity.
Of course I have never taken the worst and only stuck with the best!
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
SB: We have the power and ability to change this deeply gendered world through our cinema. Stories of men are universal and stories of half the planet are obscure and never get backing. The male gaze is our default way of seeing.
There is such a thing as the female gaze. There is a need to break stereotypical representations of women. And only women filmmakers can do that. Even if we chose to tell stories with male protagonists (which is perfectly fine) — our gaze is different. This would be my appeal to women filmmakers.
My advice would be — be your authentic self and don’t let the male-dominated film industry change you or squash you. It will try. Keep at it. You will and need to be heard.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
SB: From recent films, my favorite is Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird.” I thought it was an absolutely brilliant portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship. All three of my films are mother-daughter relationships, and they just pale in comparison to “Lady Bird.” I feel humbled as a filmmaker and inspired.
I also loved two foreign films that I saw in film festivals — “Mustang,” directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven and “Cart,” directed by Boo Ji-young. In fact, I saw “Cart” at TIFF when “Margarita” was in the festival and gave it a standing ovation. I loved that it was about working-class struggle with women in the lead. That’s rare.
From earlier times, an all-time favorite is Mira Nair’s “Monsoon Wedding.” The film stands the test of time and just touches my soul deeply as does her film “The Namesake.” In “Monsoon Wedding,” she deals with the dark, taboo subject of incest — rampant and unspoken in India — with such deftness in a beautiful, uplifting, wedding setting. So unexpected. That’s what I love about it. It’s not a dark story from beginning to end. Nair has become a friend and been extremely supportive of my work. I love and admire her personally.
Another film I must mention is “Treeless Mountain,” directed by So Yong Kim. I love it because, again, it is the heartrending story of working-class mothers. In this case, told by bringing out the plight of two adorable children whose mother had to leave them for work. I chose my cinematographer for “Margarita with a Straw,” Anne Misawa, after watching this film. I found it to be a deeply moving, heartbreaking, and brilliant film.
I have mentioned quite a few films — but I want to make a point that there are not many more that I can in fact mention! And that is a tragedy! There are too few women filmmakers in this world. I actually had to do a Google search to see who else I had missed!
W&H: What differences have you noticed in the industry since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?
SB: #MeToo was launched just prior to my starting my work on “The Sky Is Pink.” I was part of a collective of women filmmakers in India to take this forward in various ways. There was a lot of noise and publicity initially. Big heads rolled. It felt absolutely great a year ago that men could not get away any more with sleazy acts.
However, in India it has already petered out. The biggest names were soon reinstated! It’s quite shocking how that could happen despite the powerful movement.
We have to keep fighting and not assume that we have won the war because of one battle.
