00:00:00: Hi Anuparna Roy, we're here at Venice to talk about your second feature film Lovers in the Blue Night.

00:00:05: How does it feel for you come back after you won The Horizontal Prize For Best Film Last Year?

00:00:10: So

00:00:11: amazing to be here!

00:00:12: I mean when this was a dream to me started making the first film It Was Dream Come True and again To Be Here is like coming Back To Home Again because the audience And People Around Here are so Amazing.

00:00:24: They Are So Mentally Upgraded The Way they Accept Social Realism.

00:00:32: I was never scared to be very honest in terms of my profession.

00:00:58: about my narrative.

00:01:10: Am I doing good or not?

00:01:27: I just care about my narrative, my craft and nothing else.

00:01:30: Did

00:01:31: you feel the price from Horizonti helped in getting the film produced?

00:01:35: Of course!

00:01:35: The award help me to get my second producer but... My producers already signed before i owned.

00:01:42: that was one thing which is very miraculous because it's like they wanted a movie with me And I had script ready.

00:01:49: But the script was short film.

00:01:51: It wasn't because I thought songs will not do great.

00:01:53: So I started writing Lovers In The Blue Night as a short film because I thought, i will not all practicing filmmaking.

00:01:59: Because what if songs never work out?

00:02:02: So that's how we made the length of the script in a feature film and developed it.

00:02:07: A central element to Lars & The Blue Night is this setting in Mumbai And its actually one of several films last year All from very different angles show city life in their fates playing on it.

00:02:21: Why do you think is Mumbai becoming such a focal point the city and its ethnos can mean to you.

00:02:28: Because of the creator's own migration, The creators are migrant there.

00:02:32: I am from Mumbai, I shifted to Bombay three years ago And shifting me From Delhi To Bombay was political.

00:02:39: Shifting Me From Village To Delhi Was Political.

00:02:42: So thus Migration coming in my stories because Though i'm a privileged migrant But Social Realism Or Something Which You Cannot Deny If You See The Film The exageration of the Mumbai's beauty.

00:02:57: It is not there, it a different Mumbai I can bet on it!

00:03:00: Its'a different Mumbai which you already seen earlier in earlier films.

00:03:03: i am NOT focusing on the exterior's beauty.

00:03:06: Im talking about very human story where all four characters wants to live their life its most simple desire what humans have and im not exaggerating poverty.

00:03:17: we tried our best to sympathize with the character & their economical condition & geographical surroundings.

00:03:24: Together we talked about the desire and how their desires are driving.

00:03:28: Desire of getting a societal identity which is completely performative.

00:03:33: society itself On other hand, getting accepted by the society again like chasing an identity Getting husband, getting seen and heard by his husband.

00:03:43: The Husband looking for love He's gay.

00:03:45: on the other hand Other characters looking to be accepted by upper caste.

00:03:49: It's complete societal drama, societal realism Which I studied.

00:03:53: I'm studying from last past three, four years.

00:03:56: You're

00:03:56: very right.

00:03:57: we see this.

00:03:57: Mumbai.

00:03:58: that's the back lots That is small flats where working class people and low paid people work.

00:04:04: So did you research those areas or do also maybe live in them?

00:04:08: Or have some lived experience with them?

00:04:10: so every time i used to go for reiki... ...i use ask my production manager.. ..that are not going.

00:04:15: tell me were to shoot.

00:04:17: I am gonna find a place , I will search on my team And then im gonna tell you bring me the permit to get this shooting done.

00:04:24: So it was like whenever I used to go out, It was exploring a new Bombay and we always had this inside our mind To find some new element which never happened before.

00:04:34: In the film.

00:04:35: We didn't exaggerate those small windows or big flats.

00:04:39: If you saw that movie its not there A family who lives near sea.

00:04:43: They have trauma from flood.

00:04:45: And how water How that flood ended up in their own lives And navigating through emotions.

00:05:12: We

00:05:13: see this diversity also reflected in the different languages and accents we hear.

00:05:23: No,

00:05:24: I speak only regional Bengali language which is not elite Bengali.

00:05:29: Which isn't Bengali because i come from a village so my language is different.

00:05:33: it's a Purulia's language ,I speak.

00:05:35: I shifted to Delhi .

00:05:36: I learnt North Indian Hindi Language Because of Migration Because It Is Political.

00:05:41: If You Don't Speak Hindi they're gonna ask you questions.

00:05:44: So..i had to learn.

00:05:45: and then i learned of course English because i studied English Literature start a communication in an organization or college, because I had to do call center.

00:05:55: Because i couldn't get selected at film school and I have no options but doing job.

00:06:00: so when was in call center I learned English mingling the all three four languages.

00:06:05: it's mostly showcase diversity of this migration on diversities off India.

00:06:11: In india there are thirty kilometers different language they're different culture everything is different migration and real migrant, I had to bring out their own languages.

00:06:23: And i believe in portraying those languages which are going to be extinct Which is not the mainstream language like Hindi or English.

00:06:30: My character speaks something very regional Very local, very original.

00:06:35: They talk like that.

00:06:36: That's how they learn.

00:06:37: There also a strong narrative focus on female desire.

00:06:41: Would you say there was something new in both international cinema but also in local Indian cinema?

00:06:46: The female desires isn't it personal I mean, all the South Asian women are very much suppressed because of gender discrimination and because of the gender hierarchy.

00:06:55: So it comes naturally inside a film Because i've seen woman who never took stand for themselves Who can't pick their voice out They're never vocal they always suppress.

00:07:05: For me exploring that narrative Exploring this thing which is talking about this suppressed woman And her desire was something important.

00:07:14: That's how we bring social realism.

00:07:16: Otherwise... reach families, women.

00:07:19: I don't know them.

00:07:20: they must be very much liberal and very much neutral on very much mentally upgraded have seen mostly woman who are suppressed.

00:07:26: so i had to talk about it

00:07:27: at this point.

00:07:28: do you already haven his project?

00:07:29: that your a new project?

00:07:31: That You're working

00:07:32: on Working in a very romantic film which is talking about dysfunctional marriage of the co-engineer and his wife?

00:07:40: It's A Romantic Film.

00:07:41: doesn't Have any Sexual Complicities.

00:07:43: We Are

00:07:44: Looking forward To See That.

00:07:45: Thankyou So Much for This Interview.

00:07:46: ThankYou SO MUCH.