After years of acting in plays, movies and television shows, Tisca Chopra revealed her filmmaking ambitions through Chutney in 2016. Directed by Jyoti Kapur Das and co-written by Chopra (who also plays a leading role), Chutney is a deliciously dark short film in which nothing is what it appears to be.
Chopra went on to co-write and star in two more short films, Chhuri (2017) and Rubaru (2020). With Saali Mohabbat, Chopra has eased herself into the director’s chair.
Co-written by Chopra and produced by Manish Malhotra, Saali Mohabbat stars Radhika Apte as a put-upon housewife with a secret or two. The Hindi film release also stars Anshumaan Pushkar, Divyenndu, Sauraseni Maitra, Anurag Kashyap and Sharat Saxena in key roles. Saali Mohabbat will be premiered on ZEE5 on December 12.
Tisca Chopra spoke to Scroll about the inspiration behind Saali Mohabbat and the approach she took towards directing her cast. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
You have been an acclaimed actor for years. You co-wrote three short films. What does it feel like to make a feature – and what prompted the move?
I don’t think it’s really sunk in. I was going about my life doing what I was doing. I feel good, I guess.
Shabana ji [Shabana Azmi] had once said that she still struggles to find good roles. I thought that it’s better to not be struggling when I am at that age, to have scripts ready and direct my own films so at least I will be working when I want to.
The short film Chutney received a positive reception. That obviously encouraged me too.
What were the ideas that went into Saali Mohabbat?
I have written the script with Sanjay Chopra, who happens to be my husband. Namrata Shenoy is our co-writer.
I have always loved bendy, twisty stories. I am very interested in human beings and the world that is inside them – the conflicting agendas that people have, the drama that this creates. The interior world is equal to the exterior world, even greater in some cases.
Nature has its own drama by way of storms and earthquakes. There are similar seismic events happening within our lives. There are compulsions and certain things that we do despite not wanting to. Greed and our desires and their collision – this interests me very deeply.
Tell us about the inspiration for the reserved, enigmatic heroine played by Radhika Apte.
When I was a young kid, I used to go on trips with my parents. We were living in Noida, and we used to go to Delhi sometimes. I’d look at the buses, at the women and men inside them, and wonder, where are they coming from, where are they going? I would wonder about the lives of ordinary people. That stayed in me like a sadness, that I would never know the lives of these people who were passing in the night, so to speak.
Simultaneously, we live in a time where people are trying to out-bling each other, whether it’s fake nails with diamonds on them or stones on eyelashes. There is encrustation upon encrustation, embellishment upon embellishment. Everyone is screaming for attention, but there are also those who are not.
What are their lives like? Could it be that the lives of those who are screaming for attention are quite empty? That those who are not might actually have vibrant inner lives? Don’t judge a book by its cover – that’s where the idea actually began.
You’ve been an actor, and you’ve worked with all kinds of filmmakers. What were you looking for when you were casting?
At the surface level, a very fine actor. The script was doing the heavy lifting in terms of emotions. The more poker-faced and flat the actors were, the better it would work. Their characters needed to be under the radar.
I explained this to Radhika. I said, don’t do much, do less and less, it’s better for her character because the script will do the work. She had to be unassuming, tread very innocently and gently, not embellishing the performance with anything. She did that very easily and didn’t make it boring either.
My strong point was an understanding of the script. As an actor who was directing, I got out of the actors’ way. I trusted their instincts – Radhika, Divyenndu, Anurag, Sharat sir, Sauraseni, Anshumaan, everyone.
Initially, I wanted to act in the film too, but that might have probably been too much.
How did Manish Malhotra end up producing the film?
A writer friend of mine, Sudeep, was telling me that Manish was looking to produce films. I have known Manish since the first film that I was supposed to do and he was to design the costumes for, which was about 30 years ago. That film never took off, but this one did, so here we are.
I’m very lucky to have an artist who is a producer.
Will there be a sequel to Saali Mohabbat? And will you keep directing?
I’m hoping there will be one. It depends on how much people enjoy this one. We we have the script ready. I firmly believe that this story has not been fully told by a long shot.
I do plan to direct more. There are two projects in the pipeline. I want to produce and act in them. Let’s see how life pans out.
