Addressing a virtual session of Ek Mulakat Visesh filmmaker Deepa Mehta said, “Lot of my love for Indian cinema came before I became an NRI and I was very grounded in Indian cinema. I was a reluctant Canadian and for a long time I missed India.
But home is actually defined by safety and if I don’t feel safe in India it is not home. I feel if India gives me her stories, Canada gives me the freedom to express them. I am a strange kind of NRI.”
Deepa Mehta, who had faced a lot of controversy and outrage for her films Fire and had to close down production of her film Water in India, was responding to a question by Archana Dalmia, member Ehsaas Woman of Delhi - How has being an NRI shaped your Indianness and how has that Indianness moulded your filmmaking?
The Ek Mulakat Visesh session, organized by Prabha Khaitan Foundation of Kolkata and presented by Shree Cement, was introduced by Priyanshi Patel of Ehsaas Woman of Ahmedabad.
Deepa Mehta’s work challenges stereotypes and is fearless and provocative. She recently shot the pilot and second episode for Netflix Original series, Leila, and is the creative executive producer of the show. She also directed The Manager – the pilot episode of Little America for Apple
TV. Deepa’s film Midnight’s Children was shot in Sri Lanka and her latest feature film Funny Boy, based on award winning novel by Shyam Selvadurai, is also being shot in the island nation. “My love for Sri Lanka came because India didn’t love what I wanted to do,” Deepa said.