This time on MissMalini Starsquad, we have Anushree Mehta the director of Mrs Undercover, in an exclusive interview with MissMalini spoke to us about the hardships she faced in the early days of her career, her love for cinema, and her journey making the film with Radhika Apte. She also mentions how much her business partner and producer of the film, Abirsen Gupta stuck by through thick and thin and helped her cross major milestones like the making of Mrs Undercover. Read on to know more about her journey…
Before that check out the trailer of the film below…
When did you first know you wanted to become a director?
My mother realised that I wanted to be a director, much before I did. Ever since I was a little kid, I was a cinema lover. I was always interested in how did they do this, and who did it, all those innocent questions related to making movies. She had told me that I wanted to become a filmmaker when I was 17 when I was confused and didn’t know which walk of life I want to take. At 17 I went to Australia to study communications and practically ran away from there in less than a year because I realised I couldn’t stay away from Mumbai. Then I started working in a whole different industry. Around 13 years ago, I met Abirsen Gupta, the producer of Mrs Undercover and my business partner. We started writing episodic crime shows together and I also produced a Bengali film which Abir wrote and directed. Ever since that day I have worked and struggled to become a director and now with Mrs Undercover, my dreams have come true and I want to make movies all throughout my life. Jeena Yaha, Marna Yaha, right?
What are some of the struggles you faced in the early days of your career?
The struggles I faced are many and I continue to struggle. I believe everyone is struggling in their own capacity. However, ever since I was 18, I am the breadwinner of the family. I had the responsibility of my parents, younger brother and myself. But I had dreams to fulfil too. And a very senior director once told me that you cannot fulfil dreams and responsibilities together, you have to make a choice. However, I promised him that I’ll prove him wrong. I am of course not from a film family, don’t have film contacts. So it takes a lot more time to meet the right people and tell them what you want to do. And I may sound jaded with this conversation, but the fact that I’m a girl makes the struggle 100 times harder. And people back then, people were not receptive to the idea of a middle-class single girl making movies. As opposed to now where things are looking up a little bit. And that too someone like me wants to make action comedies. But thanks to my business partner Abirsen Gupta whose taken a stand for me and has been able to cross major milestones in my career with Mrs Undercover.
If you had to pick between writing and directing, just one for the rest of your life, what would that be and why?
I cannot ever pick between being a writer, director or producer, it has been a part of my bloodstream and my existence. It is who I am, a writer, director, and producer. I cannot ever choose between the three, I love cinema and love making cinema. I want to be doing all three, till the end.
Tell us a little about your upcoming project Mrs Undercover, with Radhika and the journey.
Mrs Undercover has been a life-changing journey and experience for me. It has made me realise my strengths and powers as a woman and filmmaker. It’s a movie that’s been made with all of my heart. And I’ve had a tremendous team, a team of 200 people behind the camera, that made it possible for me to make my dream come true. Radhika is pure magic herself. My journey with her has been magical from the word go. Because I finished writing the script and narrated it to the producer of Mrs Undercover and he asked me this is a banger of a script, now tell me who do you want to narrate the film to, and who do you want to cast? And pop came the name, Radhika Apte. And I said please take me to her, I want to narrate it to her, and Abir made it happen. I narrated the film to her, and 5-6 mins into the narration she stopped me and said Anushree I’m doing the film, what happens ahead? And that was her first reaction to hearing about the film. The shoot is where we had the most fun because she and I were always on the same page and we were like a house on fire. She listened to every brief very intently and makes everything her own so seamlessly that none of that looks like acting and gives 200% of what you expect of her. We were very thick together and stuck by each other, that is how Mrs Undercover was made and that’s how the magic happened.
What’s one piece of advice you would give young budding directors and writers?
Please never doubt yourself, especially through tough times. Because the going will get really tough, but the belief in your dreams will make you tougher with times. And those times will pass and you will see the light of the day in such a way, that one day your dream will come true. Like mine did. I’m a girl that belongs to a middle-class Gujarati family in Mumbai, with no film connections, and after a big struggle for 13 years I got to make my first film and trust me I’m still struggling for other movies also. But they are also slowly but surely coming together. So I’m sure if I can, anybody with that amount of passion and belief in their dreams can make movies. Besides, the most important thing I would like to tell budding filmmakers is to choose their producers very very wisely. In my case I had my business partner Abirsen Gupta producing my film. However, it is very important that you as a producer choose who invests the money in your film, and who you’re partnering with as a producer in your film. Because a producer is not somebody who just puts in money, they are someone who puts the whole film together for the filmmaker as per their vision and empowers the filmmaker to achieve their dream film. And chooses people along the way very wisely who all want to empower the director. Because the film is always one person’s vision, and it has to be the director’s vision. Therefore protect your vision, protect your dreams, and get tough. I would like to give my best wishes to all budding filmmakers who have all these brilliant ideas and I pray, that they all get to make their movies.
Wishing her all the luck for her upcoming film, and I surely cannot wait to see many more of her stories come to life. The film premiered on 14th April on Zee5, make sure you definitely catch this one.