Shonali Bose: I was excited that I could write comedy

New Delhi (IANS) – When Shonali Bose sits in the director’s chair, she normally goes for heavyweight subjects like genocide, death and disability. So, it came as a pleasant surprise to her when she found that she could also write a comedy series.

Although she had to drop the digital series and pick her latest film “The Sky Is Pink”, she is happy that she could work on a genre that people generally don’t associate her with.

“I was approached by Paramount in America and Anonymous Content. They loved ‘Margarita With A Straw’ and they approached me to write a series. I wrote a comedy pilot, which they loved. It takes them a few months in America so by the time Netflix picked it up and greenlit it, the same time Siddharth Roy Kapur (producer) had approached Priyanka Chopra and she gave her dates (for ‘The Sky Is Pink’),” she recalled.

Priyanka’s dates clashed with the shoot dates of the series. So, she opted to direct her “dream film” instead.

“It was very tough (to choose). I had two great things to choose from,” she said.

The audience gets it that reality is close to her heart. Does that mean she will never make a completely fiction movie?

“I am happy to. I was excited that I could write a comedy and they (the makers of the series) loved it. That itself broke a myth that I will only make drama. My children… Ishan died but my younger son wants me to make a fantasy (film) because that generation reads fantasy fiction in the biggest way. I don’t know if I can write fantasy fiction, I can certainly direct it. I love all genres of cinema, so for me, I will never put my women down, but I will take any genre of film. I look forward to that,” Bose told IANS here.

“The Sky Is Pink”, which hit the screens on October 11, is a bittersweet drama about a real-life couple, played by Priyanka and Farhan Akhtar, and their daughter (Zaira Wasim), who is afflicted by the deadly disease pulmonary fibrosis.

“When I heard the story, I found it very inspiring. They knew that their daughter was going to die. You can go into depression or you can have a difficult time knowing that.
“We would all love to live for 100 years, but death may happen earlier. How do you choose to live life? I found it inspiring how they chose to live life knowing that their kid was going to die young. That’s what struck me, and I loved their romance. They fell in love when they were 16. They are post 52 now and still are so much in love,” she said.

Tragedy seems to be a common element in her films.

“Yes, I have chosen difficult things but I wouldn’t say disability is a tragedy… genocide is. I did that because nobody else was willing to make a film on that. And I don’t look at death as a tragedy. I look at it as a very positive thing that people…everybody is going to die. Why are we so scared of it?

“I had lost my mother and son and I embrace those things in a very positive way,” said
Bose.

–IANS
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