Shonali Bose on love, loss and how her new film, which premiered in Toronto on Friday, rounds off a trilogy of sorts
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 16, 2019)
After her debut film, the National Award-winning 2005 drama Amu, followed by Margarita with a Straw nine years later, director Shonali Bose recently returned to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with her next. The Sky Is Pink is the love story of a couple—Aditi and Niren Chaudhary (Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar respectively)—who lose their daughter Aisha (Zaira Wasim) to pulmonary fibrosis. Rohit Saraf plays their son. The film premiered at TIFF on Friday, September 13, and that leads to the first question:
The Sky Is Pink was the only Asian film in the fest’s Gala section. How was it returning with a hat-trick?
It is a huge honour. I have a special connection with Toronto as this is where I started the fundraising drive for Amu (headlined by Konkona Sensharma) and also got help to release it. When I came back for screenings in Canada, a Sikh taxi driver refused to take money from me, saying, “You’re the Amu filmmaker, I can’t take money from you.”
During a screening for the Sikh community, a lady sitting next to me was sobbing. Later, she said, “Bless you, you’ve given me healing and relief.”
All three films have got emotional responses. After watching the rough cut of The Sky Is Pink, Cameron Bailey (Artistic Director, TIFF) admitted that he felt deeply healed, having lost his mother just two weeks before.
What kind of reactions did you get at the world premiere last Friday?
It was a spectacular night with close to a thousand fans on the red carpet. We entered the Roy Thomson Theatre and I introduced my cast and crew to an audience of 2,000 people. It was so special.
We heard them sniff loudly, laugh, go still and silent. We got a standing ovation and TIFF old timers told me they hadn’t seen a response like this in years. We went to Soho House and hung out until 3am. I kept smiling and saying “thank you”. People couldn’t stop praising the film.
The real Chaudharys were also at the premiere. How involved were they with the film? Were you nervous about screening the film for them?
Yes, they were there and hosted a dinner event for us last week where everyone got very emotional. I was not at all nervous about showing the film to them because they had seen the rough cuts. I’d have been terrified otherwise! The first thing I showed them was the scene of the day their child dies and how each of them reacts. They watched it while I stood outside the edit room nervously. When they came out, they hugged me and wept in my arms, saying that I’d captured it exactly as it happened. It’s difficult to capture somebody else’s memory about the loss of their child, I know how it is, having lost one myself.
Is that why you were drawn to their story?
My film is related to my son’s (Ishan; right) death, in a sense that I, too, have lost a child and so, understood the emotions deeply and could write easily about two parents and their grief. I was drawn to Aditi and Niren’s story because I found it inspiring. I saw them as carers for their daughter, inspiring thoughts that they came up with, like life has to be lived to the fullest and just because there’s death looming over your head doesn’t mean that you succumb to it. Aditi wanted to put on Aisha’s grave, “She lived” and boy, they did know how to make their daughter live!
The story moved me, and I was ready to explore the subject. I feel like I’m filled with light and love over the death of my own child. It’s a wonderful vehicle through which I bring out another layer to the issue of death, which, maybe, the Chaudhary family didn’t have.
Did you miss Ishan while making the film?
I don’t miss Ishan because he’s with me 24/7. He’s the light, love and the fuel of my life, like my younger son Vivaan. Both my children are equal to me. I don’t miss Ishan because I never have to say goodbye to him anymore. I cry when Vivaan leaves for college. I miss him but Ishan is with me wherever I go. On his birthday, on January 20, 2018, I got a text from Sid (producer Siddharth Roy Kapur) that Priyanka had finished reading the script and wanted to meet me. I laughed when I read the text because I knew it was a sign. The world premiere happened on the day he died, September 13. There’s something uncanny in the way Ishan blessed me and this film all the way.
How did Priyanka and Farhan deal with complexities of their characters?
I think the script was gold for both Priyanka and Farhan and a lot of it is all written, so it was easy for them. The workshops helped. I also told them well in advance that I’d need rehearsal days. I really enjoyed working with these actors and had formed an emotional bond with them, including with Rohit and Zaira, which you see in the film.
Priyanka borrowed from your stories of Ishan, even referring to Rohit’s character Ishaan as Ishlu, your nickname for your son. Were these scenes difficult to shoot for you, specially Aisha’s death scene?
Thank you for asking this question. It’s so beautiful that you’ve noticed that Priyanka called Ishan “Ishlu” which is not a name Aditi calls her son by. Priyanka heard me calling my Ishan that when I spoke about him and asked me, “Can I call him Ishlu in this scene?” I just smiled from ear to ear.
Another emotional shoot was when she had to break down after a scene. After I called “cut”, I hugged her and she couldn’t stop crying. She kept whispering, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I know now what it means to lose a child. I am so sorry for Ishlu.” I continued holding her.
Getting back to your question: Was it difficult? Not at all. After Ishan died, I spent an entire year doing what I call “grief work”. I took my pain in my own hands and I just sat with it. When you do that you transcend your pain, and that’s what happened with me. As a result, I am in a place of complete acceptance of his death and feel his presence with me so much that I don’t miss him.
What’s next for you?
I can’t think of my next film while I am finishing one. All my three films are fresh and original; they are a trilogy in the sense that they are all about close, beautiful mother-child relationships and death. But I think I will end with this subject after this film and move on, perhaps to a comedy. I’ve made people cry enough, I think now I need to make them laugh a lot.
After one scene, Priyanka Chopra could not stop crying-Shonali Bose
