Tisca Chopra on Saali Mohabbat, Marriage, and Career

“Yes, indeed it was. I made three short films — Chutney (2016), Chhuri (2017), and Rubaru. I acted in and wrote all three. I produced two of them, and directed Rubaru. But I was so closely involved in the making of even Chutney and Chhuri — whether it was being a part of the edit or taking all decisions, creative to crewing up — that does help because whether you make a short film or a feature film, it’s a film. With Chutney, we made a very deliberate attempt to shoot it like a feature. I got Jay Oza, who shot my show 24 (2013), and later did Gully Boy (2019) and Made in Heaven (2019), to do it for me as a friend. We used drones! People didn’t take short films very seriously. But after Chutney, everybody became very serious about short films. For me, that was the first time I wrote anything. The fact that people connected so viscerally and deeply with it gave me wings because I thought I could play this game. Screenwriting is a game you play with the audience — what do you hold back and what do you show?”

“Very consciously and stubbornly. The parts I was offered weren’t great because the idea with Taare Zameen Par was a particular, a specific mother. She was typical of an Indian mom, but a nuanced person. She was looking up the internet for her child. She was trying to do her best. She had her own complexities. She’d given up her job. I had a lot of discussions with Aamir and Amol Gupte about it. Everyone wanted to pick up that character and put it in their film. That doesn’t work for me. It’d be unnatural for a mother in her late 20s to not be a mother. People would ask what the issue is: is she infertile, is it the husband, or is it a choice for career? Actors don’t want to play mothers because it’s very de-sexing. You’re not desirable anymore and become this frumpy being. I played a mother in Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (2011) to Shruti Haasan no less. Then I also played another kind of mother in Rahasya (2015).”