Filmmaker Payal Kapadia, whose film All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, sat down with The Quint to talk about the film, the way Mumbai is portrayed in the movie, her favourite scene, how the Indian film industry can help independent filmmakers and much more.
Speaking about the film's opening sequence, Kapadia said,
“I think the first sequence is like a documentary because I like doing non-fiction also. I wanted to keep a bit of that feeling in this film also. Mumbai is a city of such diversity; there are so many kinds of people, there's so many languages you get to hear. I did a lot of interviews while preparing the script and a lot of those interviews is where the snippets came from.”Payal Kapadia, Filmmaker
In a particularly moving scene, Prabha, played by Kani Kusruti, has a conversation with a man that seems to exist between the realm of reality and fiction. “There are a lot of male characters in this film who are not present,” Kapadia told The Quint, “They are ghostly creatures that come and go but they're still holding these women down. So I didn't need her husband to give her (Prabha) closure; I needed her to find it for herself.”
When asked how the Indian film industry could help independent filmmakers, Kapadia said, “I think what's happening with Spirit and my film is something that other big filmmakers and actors can do for independent films. For instance, Rishab Shetty is supporting a lot of local cinema from Karnataka because our films are very small; they can be made. If big studios are willing to put aside some funding to help independent films which doesn't pinch their pockets too much, that'd be nice.”
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