Anuparna Roy sounds happy, tired, content- a mix of a lot of emotions as she speaks to HT City exclusively after her historic win at the world’s oldest film festival, the Venice International Film Festival. She became the first Indian to lift the Best Director award for her film Songs of Forgotten Trees.
With everyone around telling her about her creating history, she quips, “All these statements are making me humble. I am pretty sure there will be a lot of responsibility after this win. I cannot lie back and enjoy hearing that I have created history. Come on! I am inspired by many other- and better- women filmmakers from within and outside India. It’s not just me, it’s cinema which has created history again. I would love to give the award to cinema, my love for it. I am still a student of cinema, and learning will be my top most priority. It was before, it is now, and it will be in the future.”
Songs of Forgotten Trees was the only Indian selection in the prestigious Orizzonti Competition section at the festival. As she received her award, Annapurna shares that she could only think about her own journey, “I remembered how Anurag (Kashyap, presenter) phrased it to me, that winning an award is not just bringing reputation, but also responsibility to the table, to make more better films, better craft, even when you are uncomfortable. I would love to dedicate this award to all the beautiful women out there, to my Purulia village (in West Bengal) where I was born and brought up. I have seen the women’s lives there. If any of them, after seeing this, can raise their voices, it would be great. It will be sufficient for me to keep myself motivated.”
She emphasises that a film about women and their intimacy had unanimous support from an all-men team of backers, and that was encouraging. “It was definitely tough, but the kind of backing I received set an example for the world. Gender is literally secondary. My whole film was backed by men- Ranjan Singh sir, who said yes when I was just scripting. Bibhanshu Rai has always been there for me, stood like a pillar, Romil Modi sir was there when I just started, then Anurag Kashyap sir was a bonus. Ranjan sir helped me showcase the film to him, Naveen Shetty, the co producer. Vikas Kumar, Sharib Khan the co producers… for a film talking about friendship, outside the film too, the team members were friends and close. This is huge.”
