The kaleidoscopic lady

Sai Paranjpye, a multifaceted personality, who has the distinction of being the first woman film director in the country, is in Goa to attend a retrospective of her films organised by the Cinephile Club of the Entertainment Society of Goa, to celebrate International Women’s Day. She speaks exclusively to NT BUZZ on various topics while sharing some of her warm memories

 

RAMNATH N PAI RAIKAR | NT NETWORK

 

1. You moved from one medium to another without settling into any one. Was this a natural evolution or an inability to stay in a medium for too long?

I think that was the inborn gypsy in me. I have always been a slightly flighty person. Whenever I am do something, I think about something else that might be more exciting. So whenever I was making a film, between pauses I would think that the stage is so wonderful. The live atmosphere, the feeling of reality at the theatre and so on… And when I did theatre, I felt there is nothing like cinema to capture one’s innermost emotions and dive deep into one’s soul, which a play can’t do. Cinema also has the advantage of selecting different representations for audiences, while if a spectator is sitting on a particular seat to watch a play, he would see the play from the point of view of that seat. In cinema, he can be shown a close up, an object, a river… What a director wants him to see. A film is an enduring medium. A show of the play is held one night and it’s over, while cinema lasts even after you are gone.

The television is equally exciting and I’ve been a television producer for eight long years with Delhi Doordarshan. In fact, I was one of the first television producers in the country with six others, including Habib Tanveer and Shama Zaidi. It was fantastic; very exciting, very adventurous, very challenging…  And then there is radio. I began my career with Pune Akashvani as the English announcer. That used to be such fun. And then I started compering children’s programme on radio and came to be known as Didi. I even had my first taste of being a celebrity on radio when I was recognised by a fan only on the basis of my voice on the telephone.

All these mediums are so precious to me and I have no favourite, just as a mother does not have a favourite child.

1. A general complain that people have against Sai Paranjpye is that she stopped making films when she was at her peak. Was it the case of stopping at a time when people ask you why rather than when?

You have beautifully answered the question for me. Actually it’s a very funny syndrome. When I was nobody and making films, I could go and knock on doors and say, “Hey, I have got a fantastic idea and could you finance my film?” And it was fairly easy to get money this way. But once I became a name, with the National Award and being the first woman film director, I could not do all these things as it was below my dignity and not respectable. It would have been disgraceful. Unfortunately, the best screenplay that I have written so far is of an unmade film set in Goa, ‘Xapai’ meaning grandfather, depicting the Portuguese hangover in a Catholic family. It’s a black comedy.

1. Do you believe in creative work ahead of its time, fully knowing that mostly such work will not be appreciated when it is presented before the public for the first time? I can cite the example of your Marathi play ‘Mogra Phulala’ here.

Yes, the play was definitely ahead of its time in the Marathi middle-class milieu, at that point. Of course, it would not be ahead of time in America. Maybe its subject was dated in the US. Fortunately or unfortunately, the Marathi audiences had an image of me of making fun films. And when ‘Mogra Phulala’ arrived on the stage depicting an extra-marital affair, the Marathi audience were shocked and furious. I was furious too. After all, how long could I go on doing these delightful neighbourly things? However, I was not excused and the play was a major flop.

 

 

1. People who have grown up watching your films feel that the characters and actors playing them are from their own household and neighbourhood. Presently, most of the actors are no more and as we watch these films today, we feel a pain of personal loss. Do you feel the same way?

Oh, now you want me to cry? Honestly, I’m going to cry. Now, especially when you see ‘Katha’… In fact, one day my daughter Winnie and I were watching ‘Katha’ and she said, “Mum I can’t see it anymore.” She said everybody on the screen is no more. Her father and my husband, Arun (Joglekar), who plays Dipti’s (Naval) father in the film, is no more. So are actors Farooque (Shaikh), Lila (Mishra), Nitin Sethi and Ramesh Jhanjani, who played the Sindhi character and many others in the film are no more. Also lyricist, Indu Jain, music director, Raj Kamal and singer Kishore Kumar are no longer with us. Meera, one of the chawl women, who was my best friend, has also passed away. So it’s very painful. But then, I say, they are still there. They are on the screen. They are part of my life and until I am there, they will be there.

 

1. In your autobiography ‘Saay: Maza Kalapravas’, you have often maintained that finance is the main problem for any creative work. Has the situation changed today?

Easily available is a bit optimistic, but it’s more readily available than during my heydays. Now, there is such a thing as crowdfunding. It needs to be explored, but now unfortunately, I don’t have the stamina to get into that although I have three screenplays ready for filming. But you never know!

 

1. You have a universal family in the real sense of the word, from India to erstwhile Soviet Union from your father’s side. Did this help in your growth as a person?

I think so. Yes. A lot of the traits I have, the outlook for example, are not totally Indian. Even my humour is not totally Indian. And not only because of the lineage, but also because I spent lot of my childhood in Australia as my grandfather – my mother’s father – Wrangler R P Paranjpe was India’s first High Commissioner to Australia. And as a child living in a Western country is really a boon, especially if the child is creative and has artistic talent. The places that I saw, the books that I read, the films that I watched and the people I met, have all stayed with me, and have come out in various ways. A lot of credit goes to my mother, and my grandfather who was a great mathematician. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any mathematical genes from him.

 

1. Today so many positive things are being said and written about women empowerment, but when you started working the concept of career women was generally a taboo. Did you face hurdles along your way?

When I joined the radio as an announcer, it wasn’t such a rare thing. A lot of girls were doing jobs. However, as my mother Shakuntala Paranjpye started doing social service in the field of family planning when it was not even talked about in the polite society, it was like what ‘Mogra Phulala’ had done to me. She was a woman of guts and determination.

 

1. Finally, is there any creative work that you feel you should have taken up during your long kaleidoscopic career?

I have mentioned earlier about the film that remained to be made, ‘Xapai’. Apart from it, I have got two-three scripts ready. One is called ‘The Treasure Chest’, which is totally about our Ayurveda and I wrote it for a German pharmaceutical company. They paid me very handsomely for the script. That’s the best amount I got from anybody because nobody pays like that for a script. However, unfortunately after the script was written and the payment was made the company folded up. They were going to produce the film, but they couldn’t. The script is there now, but who is going to produce a film on Ayurveda? I would have loved to film it as also ‘Xapai’. But it always happens to creative people… Some things remain to be made. It should remain…