How do you know, who is the one for you -- this is what the logline on the poster of the film Joon reads. It is the upcoming feature film by writer and director Barnali Ray Shukla. I know Barnali (whom I call B), since 2018 when I got connected to her on Instagram. Barnali is also a poet and a writer apart from being an independent filmmaker. She is just an ordinary human like you and me, who is humble, down-to-earth, simple, comfortable staying behind the lens, emotional, and has a keen eye for aesthetics. But what makes her extraordinary is that she is very much creatively gifted.
In academics, Barnali was the Delhi University topper not only during her graduation but also in post-graduation. She made her directorial debut with “Kucch Luv Jaisaa” in 2011. She was an assistant director with Ram Gopal Varma in Satya, has worked on script selections with Sudhir Mishra and had been in the writers' room with Ekta Kapoor.
She was on the Selection Committee for the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images for three years in a row which honed her view of the world and also opened a gaze, beyond Bollywood. Her scripts have been shortlisted for the Sundance-Mahindra Script Lab for two consecutive years (2013, 2014).
Her documentary film, “Liquid Borders” had its European Premiere at the RIVER To RIVER Florence Indian Film Festival in 2015. Her next documentary film “Once Upon a Sky” has won five awards in film festivals across Europe and Asia, and is streaming now on BeBop Channel, NYC, USA, and MX Player, India. After this she has also made a short documentary, “All is Well” that has gained recognition across three continents and has bagged 21 awards so far and more than 18 official selections. It is streaming on iTunes, India.
Apart from filmmaking, she writes poems and short stories which regularly get featured in different reputed online magazines and journals in India and abroad. She also has a published poetry book named, Apostrophe, (RLFPA, 2016).
Ronald Tuhin D'Rozario: Please walk us through your filmmaking story. How did film making happen to you?
Barnali Ray Shukla: It started with me not succumbing to the life that comes prescribed to most. I was no rebel, instead as a kid, as a student and as a daughter, I towed the line and never questioned much. I was good in academics, else perhaps certain defiance and rethinking would have happened earlier. Circumstances of my choices around life sciences too proved to be unpleasant and what followed tipped the scale towards films.
It was a chance meeting with Kiran Karnik, the then head of Discovery Channel, India, at the Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, where I had gone to submit a folder for a friend. I had been waiting at the reception for over an hour when he, without introducing himself, sat on the adjacent sofa and asked if he could be of help. He had noticed me
waiting and asked what I was here for. Holding on tight to the file, I said “Today I am a courier”.
“On other days?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Would you consider…say writing or filmmaking?”
“I am in my final year of post-graduation waiting for the UPSC and GRE results”.
“Are you sure you want to be doing that?”
I must have shaken my head. He suggested that while I waited for my results if I could take the admission test for a diploma in FILM & TV Direction & Production, at ACADEMY 18. He said he saw the advert in a leading daily that morning and said Mr Raghav Behl was helming this, (I didn’t know who that was then and there was no Google), but yes, what got me thinking was the experience and the assurance of campus interviews at the end of term after making one’s own student film.
Six months later, I had three jobs on Day 1 of interviews after our diploma films were ready. Business Television with NDTV, Feature production for Karan Thapar’s HomeTV or Assistant Director for a STAR PLUS show with Amit Khanna’s PLUS Channel, where Mahesh Bhatt was series director, Renu Saluja, series editor, and Javed Akhtar supervised scripts. Job in Bombay.
Cutting to the better part, was here on February 14, 1997. Every Valentine’s Day I tell Bombay that it continues to be my longest relationship so far.
On that show on Star Plus, where I joined as Assistant Director, the writer was Anurag Kashyap. Just before my probationary period was getting over and I would be ‘pucca’ at my new job with Plus Channel, he said that it was perhaps time for me to move on to the movies. I was quiet and told him movies were a mean business, just to push away the idea, I didn’t want to leave a stable job.
Anurag said he was co-writing a film about gangsters, added that it was for Mr. Ram Gopal Varma. All I remember was that this felt like quite the dream next step but I said No.
Anurag said “as if he is going to hire you, at least meet him”. I did so and was hired the next day. I completed my probation at PLUS Channel and was getting a promotion to Associate Director and the next pay segment, four times what I was getting but I put in my resignation. That was July 1997. I joined Ram Gopal Varma on Satya, as an assistant director. IMDb credits me as a second unit Director.
R: What does cinema mean to you and what is your approach towards it as a medium of expressing yourself and your creative ideas?
B: The meaning keeps evolving as the years go by. That dynamism is exciting, the very same film seen a month or year apart is never the same, and neither is the viewer. That I find takes me closer to a universe of its own. Once in the darkened theatres, surrender by choice to an adopted reality, captive with strangers is always unique yet universal. Now films reach home, at your desk, or on your phone, so the shared waves of empathy are more personal. The viewing experience more intimate perhaps. Even storytelling has grown, apart from the films made with an agenda to replicate a formula. Meanwhile, the audience has grown too, is better informed, and is exposed to a world of films already. As a filmmaker, it is good to take them into confidence and trust their understanding.
The few occasions where I have been able to express myself without fear of watchful eyes and pocket, I think the creation only completes when it reaches the ones you are making it for. Cinema is an ocean of choices and the shoreline is long, you can wet your feet or take a swim, but not all films are cinema.
For my work, I look at them as the beginning a conversation about themes and subjects, which many are touched by but not touched upon. We shouldn’t be held back by an industry but enabled by it- the fine line between catering and creating. First one has to drop the fear to be able to make something new. The world is changing faster than we could imagine, and we have to adapt. I want to keep at it.
R: Now tell us a bit about your upcoming film ‘Joon’. How did the idea come by, what is it about, and what was the process of its filming?
B: Joon is a love story. Where its more about coming into one’s own rather than simply looking for the right partner.
Joon runs into Sid, just days before her wedding. There is a rare connection that builds up but she is in denial. She continues with her wedding plans but she finds soon that her choice was a mistake. The film explores to find- how do you know who is the one for you?
R: You are making a full-length feature film after a while. In between, you were busy with documentary projects. So, tell us how different is the journey between making documentaries and full-length feature films? And among these two categories, which genre of filmmaking do you enjoy the most?
B: The practice of both has helped me.
An authentic, real and fearless voice is honed by nonfiction. And understanding character arcs, scripting, telling a story (hopefully) better, and the ability to create a world with not just facts but imagination is a space that remain the strength of fiction. The meeting of both worlds is ideal, I don’t know if am anywhere close but may I quote lyricist, Irshad Kamil? After watching my first documentary film, “Liquid Borders”, he shook hands and shared that I now claim a tiny place where nonfiction lends me objectivity and fiction helps celebrate the rasas.
R: How would you describe the director's job during the entire process of making a film?
B: The ideal combination of being visible in the most invisible ways, so that the primary players
own their space. The big challenge here is mediated creativity. While all the heads of technical departments are primary players, the actor being the medium and instrumental in making the film ‘seen’, the director ‘operates’ through them all, as a tertiary player.
The captain of the ship must lead from the front, be completely in synch with strengths and limitations of each facet that helps build the ship and begin the voyage.
The little hacks that help, are the ability to think on one’s feet to turn the ordeal into an adventure, a sense of humour, the ability to anticipate, know when the crew is hungry, know when the actors are angry, and lead instead of boss.
Apart from that, there are 241 details that she or he is dealing with at any given time, which is only a small detail. If the director is the producer, I urge that the unit to have an additional stretcher, an ambulance, a loaded song playlist, and a bar, nearby.
R: Do you remember any interesting moment that occurred while shooting for Joon, that you would like to share?
B: Too many to share but I need to stick to just one, I guess.
So Akshay Sharma, who is the leading man, plays the role of Sid, who is a biker. He needed to have practiced hours of biking before our shoot schedule which he promised he had packed in but then in the Himalayas, it was another ball game.
This preparation or the lack of it, works for him and the film. In the story, ‘Sid’ is a newbie biker and this is his first biking trip. What comes on screen, this awkwardness and his uncertainty about the machine keeps him real, vulnerable, and not this dandy with a bike. Tell me if you feel concerned, as a viewer. The joy of a shared experience. Will wait for you to tell me, once you see the film.
R: Could you describe your process of shooting? Do you follow any specific pattern or a particular routine during shoots?
B: Hahahaha, my actors must be raring to take this question. I am completely spontaneous, though completely prepared but not closed. I like to keep improvising till I can and depend on my actors, draw from their experiences, and include them in the scene I more ways than one.
To lose what they have to give is unfortunate. I like to believe that all who are on the team bring so much skill, ideas which can be most useful, others which can derail. In a film unit, everyone present in their own way is making the film, and the director is the one who makes the choice of what to include. There lies the onus and/ or the mantra of what makes the film, memorable or forgettable.
R: Who are your favourite filmmakers whom you admire the most and name some of the films that you can never grow tired of re-watching?
B: The list keeps growing but I am excited about the work of the Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Satyajit Ray, Agnes Varda, Mani Ratnam (early works).
Among contemporary Indian filmmakers, Amit Masurkar (Newton), Rima Das (Village Rockstars).
R: You are also a talented poet and writer! So how do you balance your time between literature, films, and personal life?
B: Yes, Ronald. Thank you for bringing this up but am not sure I have struck the right balance.
Guess I get by, because I don’t try to balance, I live.
If you have the freedom to live what you believe in, then much of what you see coming your way becomes a part of your literature and films. Interesting ways in which the cosmos works, also gives you the people, the resources, the obstacles, the heartache and the highs that mean the world to you that come along with the choices you make.
It was not this sorted always. First thing that hits you once you come out of the comfort zone are the bills to pay. Hours of TV writing done to be able to live in this city.
What I also notice is the busier I get, the more I can deal with. A lot of you may know the feeling. The others am sure are getting there.
R: Do you have any particular beliefs or practices that you do before you start a project or on the release day of the film?
B: As for Joon we had the pandemic, and that set our schedules. The un-lockdown phase is when we shot. Before the shoot of the film, give it everything you have. On the release day of the film, believe that you can move ahead with more gusto and a few more allies.
As for the unseen, harness all powers of positivity my friend, it is so damn lonely in the crowd. Stand tall, stay grounded, keep the faith and trust your story.
R: Tell us a little about your upcoming projects, in both films and literature.
B: Working on at least five ideas at a time, leads to a script that is somewhere close to finding people to invest in it. On my second draft for the next feature film. One actor and one investor have shown interest. Not counting the chickens just yet but working on the chicken and egg. The script I also wish to submit to a screenplay contest but first of all, one must get better at one’s own screenwriting chops.
Meanwhile, working on my second book of poems. A gap of five years feels adequate from the first book to have had a run, but I am told I should have sat with my book next to fountains, lakes, and geysers to have made it visible to book reviewers and influencers. Am afraid I couldn’t do that, but am always grateful to my inner circle for telling me what I do wrong.
This time there is a publisher in the picture. Fingers crossed it all comes together well.
First, I need to be certain. That’s when I can talk about it.
R: What is the one thing/rule that you always follow while making films?
B: Tell the stories only you can, and tell them in the best way you can. Make it yours and say it well.
R: I personally shall be looking forward to watching your film, Joon. Before I draw a closure, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for making time and having this conversation. It was delightful! I wish you the very best in all your forthcoming literary and film projects!
B: Thank you, Ronald. It has been wonderful taking your questions. Over to the viewers and readers.
Ronald Tuhin D'Rozario writes poems, stories, and essays. He lives in Calcutta, India