Payal Kapadia: It’s only in cinemas where you can cry in front of strangers

Published On : 2024-11-16T13:13:41+0530 [ IST ] | Author : Mayur_Tembhare
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Payal KapadiaDespite her historic Grand Prix win atCannesfor All We Imagine As Light she said she didn't want too much spotlight because she felt somewhere the film's story got lost in my personal story. It's too much about me, me, me and that sometimes overshadows the film.

This FTII alumna was rejected in her first attempt when she applied for the editing course. Interestingly becoming an editor was her first choice. "Woh safety bhi hota hai ki aap editor banoge toh you can get some work and job

Payal believes in the importance of public institutions and says: "I love public institutions where you get some time to focus on your work. Hamare public institutes humein bahut support karte hain in sab cheezon mein. I'm totally for it.

Excerpts from an interview-

I love the catharsis cinemas bring.

Payal shares that when she is in India then she goes to watch films too and feels that the theater is only place where we can cry in the company of strangers. She says: That's something you can only do in the cinema. To do it in a cinema and where you feel so open, which is something you never do with people around.

The scene in All We Imagine As Light where Kani's character cries in the cinema hall is a homage to this feeling. She has tears; she is crying in the scene. I was thinking about a woman like her who always says - you should not show your emotions to anybody - and then she is sitting in the cinema where she finds a place to cry.

All we imagine as light

I think my film is like QSQT in a way.

When asked about the films she loves Payal often says that while growing up she used to watch Govinda's films and says: "Some of Govinda's films are really good you have to watch them!"

Qayamat se Takayamat

Hamara system aisa hai ki woh female friendship se bahut darte hain

The film is also about intergenerational friendships and female friendships. Elaborating on how female friendships are often not encouraged in our society and how women are often pitted against each other - whether in families, society or the workplace - Payal said

It's something I wanted to talk about in the film because sometimes I find myself falling into that trap too. Then I think- why did I respond like this? It was a kind of self-reflexivity that I was thinking a lot about and it came out in the writing.

All we imagine as light'

So many times men are not physically in our lives but they are still there. ''

She talked about how she wrote about those men who seem to be present in women's lives even when they're either gone or not physically present. "Actually my nani, to whom I dedicated this film - when she was in her late 90s she was kind of losing her memory so I encouraged her to write a diary so that she could recall her

Usko leke main bahut sochne lagi - what's this thing in our culture? That she would never remarry - at 50 you're still very young but it's still hard for women that age to move on. Or be with somebody else because life can go on without men too it's totally fine.

So much of her life - how these women think and how they would respond to things - was about this guy who was not even there. Even when they were not estranged just living somewhere else.

There was another girl I met who was wearing a sari and I asked her - 'Are you feeling hot? It's Bombay.' And she was like - 'My father-in-law lives in the village but he will be very upset if I wear salwar.

Toh yehi hai, ye log hote nahi hain tab bhi itna control karte hain. I connected the dots that how so many times men are not physically in our lives but they are still there."

Payal Kapadia

It's so interesting to discover your own mother at the age of 21 - how she was and what she would think.

The title of Payal's film All We Imagine as Light has been borrowed from the title of one of her mother's paintings. Talking about how her mother and her work have encouraged her she shares: "It took me a long time to make films. My mother was always encouraging - 'What do you want to do with your life?

She says: I wish I knew at 21 what exactly I wanted to do. Seeing that painting was like meeting her again but in a younger version. It really overwhelmed me. She was always pushing me but never too much. She was like: 'Take your time and figure it out.' I was anyway doing odd jobs, making documentaries and all kinds of stuff.

These actresses are really the ones who made the film. They were not like actors who came to do the job.

These actresses are really the ones who made the film. Unke bina koi film hoti hi nahi. I thought it was very normal to take them there on the stage. They were not like actors who came to do the job. Hum bahut saath mein kaam kiye, script pe kaam kiye.

Filmmaker Payal Kapadia with Divya Prabha Chhaya Kadam and Kani Kusruti after the awards ceremony at the 77th International Film Festival, Cannes

Source : Reporters From Sunrise Chronicles

Tags : Grand Prix , And , These , Actually , Parvati , Oh , Govinda , Prabha , Laughs , Interestingly ,

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