Konkona Sen Sharma has been in the industry for decades now and has established herself not only as an actress of many shades in the Bengali and Hindi film industries but also as a perceptive director with a penchant for storytelling. Currently, she’s being lauded for her short film The Mirror, a part of the Lust Stories 2 anthology featuring Tillotama Shome and Amruta Subhash in the lead. Her nuanced narrative featuring the female gaze and desires has hit the bull’s eye with the audience. In an engaging conversation, Konkona reiterates how she is an actor first and then a director, both roles driven by passion and intent. She also talks about the influence her mother, Aparna Sen, has had on her. Excerpts:
Tillotama Shome and Amruta Subhash are quite the unconventional choices for a film depicting lust.
I was clear that I wanted Tillotama. She was perfect as Ishita. Then she was the one who mentioned Amruta because I was
asking her who she thought would be perfect for Seema and when she said Amruta Subhash, I instantly agreed and we reached out to her, and that’s how it happened.
Did you ever see yourself helming a subject like Lust Stories after doing a film like A Death in the Gunj?
No, I didn’t have any plans. It is not like I had any plans to become a director but in A Death In the Gunj, I felt the need to share that story. Then I was just busy with my family; I had taken up a few acting gigs and hadn’t thought of it. Ashi Dua, who is the producer, was the one who got in touch with me and asked if you would like to do a short film for Lust Stories. I had seen the previous anthology, and I liked it. So I told her that I do not have anything in mind but give me some time and I’ll figure it out. And then I just got into it.
You’ve mentioned that you had no story initially.
A friend of mine told me this story about how she came home early with a migraine and encountered her domestic worker in bed with someone else, and in that situation, the maid was fired. That is the most regular course of things. But I immediately knew there was something important here, and I told her I was going to use it, and she, of course, laughed. I found it interesting how everything was just there—lust, class, these two women. And then what would have happened if she had been able to confront the worker? That is what I imagined in my head—how she would want to confront her, but then she wouldn’t be able to tell her because she wouldn’t have the words. And then Ishita herself enjoyed watching it; she was in conflict. And both women are doing something wrong. Both are inherently unequal, and even towards the end, their positions in society are not equal. I didn’t want to show they are now equal because of this situation. I just wanted to see how it played out.
How did you manage to get it all done without multiple retakes?
Many times, when we are depicting those things in films that we go through as normal human beings. This was an unusual circumstance and I wanted to push it high but she immediately got it. Tillotama is very good at comedy. Amruta and Srikant, the guy who played her husband—I was blessed to get such divine actors, they got it and it was magical. When we are shooting, a lot of it is always planned—even the sex positions, where will you be watching them from, where will the cameras be, we take a picture and show it to them, and see if they are comfortable.
Do you think we have cracked the code when it comes to understanding what’s desirable to women?
That I don’t know. This is something from my imagination. I saw two thieves stealing pleasure from each other. They have both done something wrong. Seema should not have been having sex at Ishita’s house without her permission and Ishita shouldn’t have been watching them. People do make mistakes. It is to understand why people are living the way they are and also take responsibility for that action. Ishita apologised to Seema at the end of it. Seema could own her desires too.
Were there any films by other directors that you watched to understand the language and treatment that are needed to address this genre?
Not specifically for this film, but there is a film called The Piano Teacher that came out many years ago. It came to mind because of the way it portrayed female sexuality, and all women are not the same, everyone’s desires are different. What I feel is that the context of showing female desires has not been nuanced, it has been basic. It’s probably exciting to be able to relate to it because we are able to see it with nuance, with mistakes, with fire and with consequences.
What is the conversation like with your mother? Both of you are actresses and directors?
We are great friends. She’s so cool. Honestly, sometimes I can’t relate to my friends when they speak about having a generational gap with their parents and not getting along with them because my mother has always been a friend to me. We have our disagreements and arguments, of course. But she started working at a very young age, and she has her respect as an individual. She has always lived life on her terms, she doesn’t care what other people think and in that way, she has helped me not live up to other people’s expectations. Not having that pressure. She has been progressive and liberal and has never had any generational gaps with my friends or me. It’s just a human-to-human thing. Her identity to me is not just that she is my mother, and my identity to her is not just that I am her daughter; we see each other as individuals.
What kind of cinema would you talk about or watch together?
She was very particular about the fact that I shouldn’t be watching mainstream Bengali or Hindi films, this was the ‘80s and ‘90s when I grew up. Of course, I watched some here and there and loved some of them as well. But we watched a lot of world cinema, art house films, whether they were Bengali or from the South. In the ‘90s, I remember when The Bold and The Beautiful used to come on Star TV and everyone used to watch it and she would come and say, ‘No no this is crap, you can’t watch it’ and of course,
I would whine but listen to her. Of course, I watched a few episodes here and there. Then when I would only be reading Enid Blyton, she said that now that it’s done, read some other books as well.
Books must have been an integral part of your life while growing up.
Yeah yeah. We read a lot. Sometimes we would be fighting over the same book on a holiday. I remember going on a road trip with my mother and taking turns to read the same book, and both of us loved it.
How different are you two as actors and directors?
We have the same sensibilities, by and large. But we are quite different. She has directed some 10–15 films. I have barely directed one and a half, so we can’t be compared at all. I am what I am because of her, she is the biggest influence in my life.
Your character in Wake Up Sid! is one that every girl keeps going back to.
I get so much love for Wake Up Sid! even today. The credit for it goes to Ayan Mukerji. It was his first film and he smashed it out of the park. He created Aisha, it’s his story; it’s his film. It is fantastic what he has done.
When are we going to see you in a Bengali film again?
I am open to a good script. When I get something good that excites me and is a good project, I am happy to go with it.
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