Filmmaker Gauri Shinde talks about how her films relate to real life, an unconventional promotional strategy for Dear Zindagi and more. By Ankita Jain
She pulls the extraordinary out of an ordinary life and isn’t diplomatic about expressing herself. For her, the protagonist is universal, and genderless.
Alia Bhatt’s character of Kaira in Dear Zindagi transcends the confines of gender. “Her character could easily be a male character,” says Gauri, who doesn’t want to restrict herself to female narratives. “There are just three genders in the world. My lead is bound to be one of them,” she adds.
like her debut English Vinglish, Dear Zindagi has the same overarching theme: an exploration of small joys and struggles of everyday life.
The filmmaker along with the star cast unveiled the new song of the film Ae Zindagi Gale laga le here and we caught her for a chat. In the song, we see Kaira (Alia) sharing a cute relationship with her mentor Jehangir (Shah Rukh Khan).
Inspired by her keen observation of human behaviour and travel tales, Gauri started writing Dear Zindagi in New York. “Even English Vinglish was based on some of the incidents of my life. And talking about Dear Zindagi, it summarises my observation about the lives of many. Some characters are real and few are fictitious. In real life, what we cannot achieve, we try to achieve that through films. For instance, every girl would want a mentor like Jahangir Khan (the role played by Shah Rukh) in her life, not for solving her problems but for giving an ear to her.” After writing at a stretch for nearly five months, she presented the script to her husband, filmmaker R. Balki, for feedback. “He found it really different and refreshing,” she recalls.
After receiving a favourable response from her husband, Gauri began the hunt for her perfect leads. The filmmaker says she doesn’t envision her actors while writing the script. “But I was fortunate enough to have my first choices agreeing to act in the film,” she says, adding that both Alia Bhatt and Shah Rukh Khan came on board almost immediately after reading the script. “Even the other actors were chosen because they fitted exactly in the character,” she adds.
Talking further about Alia, she says, “I was really touched by few of her scenes in Highway. The scene where she cries at the end of the film remembering the guy she had lost gave me goosebumps. Since then I wanted to work with her.”
When asked about Shah Rukh Khan who is playing a cameo in the film, Gauri gushes, “The best part about him is, he is open to suggestions and willing to learn even at this stage of his life. No one could play the role of a mentor in the film, the way he did.”
The film was shot swiftly, in a span of 52 days, across Goa, Mumbai and Singapore. “I am very proud of my team. I handpicked all of them myself,” grins Gauri.
Trying out an unconventional promotional strategy, Gauri hasn’t released a trailer of the film but has instead chosen to put out four snippets from the movie. The filmmaker is unwilling to divulge any more information than what can be seen in the four teasers. “I want the audience to discover the story in the theatre.” But won’t that be at the risk of revealing too littleIJ “That’s a warped mechanism to market a film,” she says promptly, adding that her intention is to change the way filmmakers market their projects. As the name suggests, for Gauri, Dear Zindagi is her tribute to everyday life. For the filmmaker, the true success of her film stands in the audience leaving the theatre in a blissful and thankful mood.