In this conversation with Outlook, Shweta talks about the film, the pros and cons of starting as a child actor, and how OTT has shaped her acting career.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q) Let's start by talking about 'Retake'. Don’t you think you did your fiction film too late? Why so?
Yes, I did make a documentary film about ten years ago called 'Roots' which was about the dying visibility of Indian classical music, and that was the interview-based documentary and direction was never on the cards. I made the documentary because of my pure love of classical music and I am a student of Hindustani classical music myself. I played the sitar and I have grown up in an environment at home where classical music, literature films, and art were always encouraged and always found a place for conversation so that documentary was the result of that mostly and I was just in college when I was working on it so I thought it was an important documentary to make but no I never thought of making fiction actually, I always had the flair for writing. I am more of a writer and I have always written poems, I have written short stories.
'Retake' story I wrote in 2018 and I narrated it to my mum she really liked it and said why don’t you direct it and I wasn’t sure because I have always been an actor so I never thought about it but in 2020 during the lockdown when I was at home and didn’t have anything to do, I started writing the screenplay and dialogues for retakes and since I worked with phantom films in 2015 as a script consultant, I used to read a lot of screenplays. I have a fair idea of drafting a screenplay so that’s how I wrote the screenplay for 'Retake' in 2020 I got a great response from the industry and I had producer friends who said that they would like to invest and that got me thinking and then Mr. Anupam Kher also loved it and he encouraged me so much and he really nudged me to sort of make it and go out and do it. During that time I was in talks with applause as well to collaborate as a writer, director, and producer. I was already working with them as an actor and they read the 'Retake' script and things just fell into place and I am so glad applause entertainment came on board.
Q) Why do you think 'Retake' was the right opportunity to get into fiction as a genre?
Ans) The story is actually about a 60-plus former actor who used to be an actor at one time who is being played by Anupam Kher. His character's name is Ramanand Gokhale and maybe because I am an actor so it's easier to write an actor’s story but more than that I wanted to write about a vulnerable man onscreen. As a female filmmaker and storyteller, it is important that I write stories that empower women onscreen but I think its equally important to emotionally empower men onscreen because men have that constant pressure of looking tough, acting tough, and being strong and being the provider, the father, the brother and in our movies, the hero, the savior. So I wanted to write about a man who lived his life doing all of that and now in his 60s is sort of reflective of what life was and questions his choices in life. Zarina Wahab ji is playing his ex-lover.
I think with fiction you can bend a lot of things, you have things more in control, and you can shoot according to what they're in the screenplay but since I am the writer and director of the film, I had the liberty to write the character and write the story the way I want to say so yeah that’s I think.
Q) You did some great projects on the ott platform, something that anyone as an actor would love to explore. Do you think that had this not been for the emergence of ott, you would have still struggled to find your place in the entertainment industry?