Rima Amarapurkar, daughter of popular film personality Sadashiv Amrapurkar, who made her debut as a director through Marathi feature film ‘Aare Aare Baba, aata tari thamba’ has now shot into fame at the international level. Her short film ‘Janani’ which invited attention of one and all at the recently concluded Goa Film Festival; will now be screened at the prestigious Cannes film festival. MMW had a chit chat with her on this occasion.
Q : Now that your short film ‘Janani’ is going to be screened at the Cannes Film festival; how do you feel about it ?
I am very much excited but at the same time I am nervous, because it is the most prestigious international film festival. With a tradition of 63 long years, I just don’t know, how will be the response here. However, considering the importance of my film being screened here, itself is a big thing for me.
Q: In the recent past, your film was appreciated at the Goa film festival too. How was your experience that time ?
It was a totally different experience, as 80% of the films were Indian films and among the remaining 20% were regional and other language films. Whatever I had expected, I received more appreciation than that. It was a great moment for me, when the members of Jury over there came personally and expressed their gratitude .
Q: Tell us something about the subject or theme of your film ?
In our society there still exists the tradition of compulsorily having a male child. With the technological progress, it has now become easier to detect whether the child taking birth would Rima Amrapurkar be a male or female child. This has only given rise to death of girl child much before their birth. This has only reduced the population of females in the country. The Government did implement strict laws to prevent such crimes, but as you know here in our country the laws are meant to be broken. Even in such cases, people started finding loopholes for escape. One can understand such a craze in villages, but even the literate people living in city are no exception.
In this film I have tried to show how a pregnant woman and her husband are harassed by their own family members and other so called respected members of the society including a doctor and the head of the village.
Q : ‘Aara Aara baba aata tari thamba’ was your first feature film. But, after that instead of doing a film, why did you opt for a short film?
In fact, this theme was already in my mind, much before making ‘Aara aara baba…’ And when the film was completed and ‘What next’ question came to my mind, I immediately tabled the script of ‘Janani’ . I found that this script was not taking more than 30 minutes of presentation. When something can be conveyed within that time effectively, why unnecessarily stretch it? When the film was shot and edited, I felt that it was a wise decision. I could communicate effectively with the audience, which was the biggest experience I had. My first feature film was a comedy with political background but this short film is a serious subject full of emotions.
Q: In our Marathi film industry we have very few women directors and you are one of them. How do you feel about it ?
I feel proud about myself that I have chosen this profession along with few other women directors. But, I feel that more and more women should take up direction, as there are certain subjects that only a woman can present in a more realistic manner. If the film ‘Aare aare baba.’ was handled by a male director, he would have certainly crossed the theme line. Therefore I feel that I have given justice to the subject. In this film industry there are many talented actresses, but we need equally talented women directors too.
Q: Besides short film and feature film, as a director what are the other areas that invite your attention?
I consider only feature film as the best field suited to me . Now, I have two scripts ready. But, after ‘Janani’ I have developed a lot of interest in short films. Therefore, if I get an opportunity with an equally strong script, certainly I would go for a short film.
