Actor and filmmaker Aparna Sen made her debut as a director with 36 Chowringhee Lane in 1981. Here, she reminisces her first meeting with Shashi Kapoor who offered to produce her maiden venture:
“I think my collaboration with Shashi Kapoor on 36 Chowringhee Lane was destined to happen. That’s what Jennifer Kapoor said to me in one of the many beautiful letters she wrote after the film, she was right. This was a film I had waited to make. Every detail was worked out in my mind beforehand .Then I needed a producer. It was Satyajit Ray who suggested Shashi’s name. Shashi had done Junoon and Kalyug with Shyam Benegal . These are films I loved and I knew he could be the right producer for me.”
“Earlier Jalal Agha had taken me to a producer who wanted to know if my film had any action or sex in it. I quickly left explaining mine was a small humane story. When I contacted Shashi, he asked me to fly down to Mumbai from Kolkata at his expense with the promise that if he didn’t like the script he would still fly me back to Kolkata at his expense. From there his generosity knew no bounds. When I reached Mumbai I asked him how to get to his house. Shashi said it was walking distance. But he still sent a car. “I don’t want you to be lost in transition,” he chortled.”
“When I reached his beautiful apartment overlooking the sea I was completely taken up by his aesthetics. Jennifer, Shashi and Govind Nihalani (who I decided after seeing Junoon and Kalyug, was to be my cinematographer) met me in a room jokingly referred to by Jennifer as the ‘chamcha room’ because that’s where Shashi met all the admirers and sycophants.Anyway, there I was in the chamcha room with the three people who were to decide my future, narrating my script. I knew I was on to something. All of them were paying attention. When I finished my narration Govind and Shashi began discussing the budget. In no time I was holding a contract. I kept staring at it in disbelief as I flew back to Kolkata.”
“Shashi asked me how much I’d charge.I said it was my labour of love. ‘Don’t be silly, Reena (Aparna’s pet name), directors must be paid the most.’ He decided to give me an unheard of Rs 30,000. But when the film released he doubled my fee and gave me 60,000. Such generosity remains unheard-of in the entertainment industry.”
“After I signed up to do 36 Chowringhee Lane, I realised I was not getting the cinematographer I wanted. Govind Nihalani had date problems. I was shattered. I was absolutely certain I wanted him. But Shashi quickly drew up a list of other options . And he made me watch the work of other cinematographers. Mind you,this was not the era of DVDs or even video cassettes. So for every film that I watched to decide my cinematographer, Shashi would book a theatre in Mumbai. Somehow I didn’t like anyone’s work. Finally, we came to Ashok Mehta’s work, where in a random cabaret sequence in a commercial film, I saw him use a blinding light that was directed right at the audience. That clinched it for me. It was Ashok Mehta and no one else after that.”
“How did I decide on Jennifer Kapoor for the lead? I’ve Uptal Dutt to thank for that. I was actually thinking of casting a non-professional real-life anglo-Indian woman whom I’d train to fit the part. In hindsight I feel that would have been a disaster. It was Utpal Dutt who suggested Jennifer, ‘Are you mad? Why would you sign another woman when you’ve the perfect fit in Jennifer?’ I was not sure because in Junoon, Jennifer’s powerful performance suggested someone way too strong and in-control to play a frail lonely woman. But I am so glad it was Jennifer. The film wouldn’t be what it is if not for her. After 36 Chowringhee Lane was released, Shashi insisted on calling me Coppola and he insisted I call him Sethji.”
“I met him a few years ago. But sadly he couldn’t recognise me. I said, ‘Sethji, this is your Coppola’. He couldn’t place me, even when I introduced myself as Aparna Sen. Then I told him I was his 36 Chowringhee Lane director. That’s when a flicker of recognition was visible on his face. They don’t make movie makers like Shashi Kapoor any more.”
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