The name of the rose

Animation filmmaker Gitanjali Rao’s debut feature, Bombay Rose, will open the Critics’ Week section at the Venice Film Festival next month. More than six years in the making, the 2-D animation film is a love story set in Mumbai, with movies as the backdrop. The protagonist, Kamala, is a garland-maker from Madhya Pradesh who falls in love with Salim, a rose-seller from Kashmir. Gitanjali recalls being intrigued by the romantic negotiations between flower vendors on local trains. “I noticed how their main influence in terms of romance came from Bollywood. I’d see them emulating the movies. I felt like telling that story in a visually poetic form,” she says.

In 1994, a retrospective of Polish animator Jerzy Kucia inspired Gitanjali to take up animation. After training under Indian animation pioneer Ram Mohan, she made her first short film titled Orange. This was followed by Printed Rainbow in 2006, which won international acclaim. The 15-minute short about an old woman and her cat was predominately in hand-painted charcoal. “When I started out, hand-painting was the norm. Computer-generated animation was still premature. I am quite a purist in that sense; I have a lot of respect for classical forms,” says Gitanjali. 

Securing finance for a full-length project was tough, Gitanjali notes. French company Les Films d’Ici — which also produced Waltz with Bashir — came on board in 2013. As proof of concept, Gitanjali made TrueLoveStory, a short film introducing the characters of Kamala and Salim. Then, in 2017, Bombay Rose was picked up by Cinestaan through the NFDC screenwriter’s lab. “In animation, your budget is always higher than a live-action film. So even if your idea is working, a producer knows he can make three live-action movies in that money. Cinestaan was adventurous enough to take the chance.”

Gitanjali’s art style varies over projects, and is sourced from the sociocultural backgrounds of her characters. “Kamala comes from MP, which is known for its miniature paintings. I also wanted to explore the truck art prevalent in Kashmir and Pakistan. So Salim hails from there.” The voice cast of Bombay Rose includes Cyli Khare, Amit Deondi, Makarand Deshpande and Anurag Kashyap.

The film makes extensive use of archival music, with one original song written by Swanand Kirkire. “It’s easier for me to take a pre-existing song and animate through it. One of the characters in the film is someone who danced in 60s movies. So the music had to come from that era. My producers increased the budget to acquire that music.”

Gitanjali, who has acted in plays, was cast as Banita Sandhu’s mother in October (2018), which got her a Filmfare nomination for best supporting actress. Does she plan on acting more often? “I’ve worked with Satyadev Dubey’s theatre group before. After October, I got several offers but had to turn them down to finish Bombay Rose. Now that it’s done, I am looking for something interesting.”The 76th Venice International Film Festival will run from August 28 to September 7, 2019.