AE: Now while this is an ensemble effort, Frieda, a queer woman, is the lead in this film. Do you look at that as being something special, especially considering queer characters are so often made secondary characters?
SJD: It was an absolute gift as a performer to be given something like this because one dreams of playing roles like this. You look forward to doing something that’s going to challenge you, something that’s going to leave a mark. And often playing a queer character is not easy for a straight person because it’s a completely different frame of mind. It’s a completely different manner of reacting to things. I’m in awe of it to a very large extent because there’s so much struggle. First, struggle with one’s self, then struggle with society–there’s so much that goes on. So many of my friends who are gay, they’re just wonderfully wholesome people, and each one of them has been through their own struggles.
From a personal point of view and just to think of the fact that, yes, you’re right, they usually get secondary characters, it’s a very bold move. I commend Pan on his boldness because it definitely hit home with a lot of people. I then went on to direct and produce my first music video for a song called “Forgot to Be Me” in which I actually put a lesbian couple. It was definitely inspired by the film.
I genuinely went through the motions and the emotions that somebody who is coming out feels. And I felt a sense of relief after I did that scene. What’s sadder is that some people live like that their entire life, living a lie, not being able to tell people because of judgment, because of society and norms, so to speak. It’s changing drastically and this film has helped and it’s inspired a lot of people to come to terms with the fact that they cannot live these lies, especially in our country. And it’s forcing people in positions of authority and positions of judgment to think twice before they condemn anybody.
AE: The film is very heavy in its feminist themes. How has that been received in India?
SJD: It was received very well. The only opposition we faced was from two sorts of people. One was from the usual misogynists and the chauvinists, who were lashing out at us on social media for everything from judging the clothes that we were wearing to some of our promotional activities, to the actual content of the film.
Two was from the censorship board. We had opposition from the censorship board for various reasons. There’s a fair amount of cursing and swearing in the film, but that’s only in situations where we’re angry about something. Obviously the lovemaking scene between me and Tannishtha [Chatterjee], which was cut entirely, which is hardly really a lovemaking scene. It’s kind of like one of those scenes where you’re suggesting things. The sad part is it was shot beautifully.
But that was the only amount of opposition we faced. More than the naysayers, we’ve had so many people come to us and applaud and commend us and say, more than anything else, “Thank you for making this film.” And the most amazing part of it: we’ve had equal amounts of men and women come to us and say this.
AE: You just mentioned a cut scene. Was that scene only cut in India? I know I saw it.
SJD: Yes. Isn’t that sad? It was only cut here.
AE: Do you wish Frieda and Nargis had more screen time together? Or do you feel that would’ve just been impossible given how many other characters there were?
SJD: The script was written in such a way that [Nargis] is not in the film for the whole duration. She joins the party later. That was something that was written in right from the beginning. There are so many stories to tell with the backdrop of their wedding. The more important message was told with the backdrop of their wedding. It is a film that addresses a lot of issues at once, so you tend to have to adopt a more, let’s say, filtered down version of various themes. If we had to go into developing each character more intimately, then it would’ve been a four-hour film, which it initially was. I’m actually happy with everything in the way it turned out.
AE: I was wondering why you think it is that Frieda chose not to tell her friends individually about her relationship?
SJD: It was a couple of reasons. One is that she was also battling with the fact that she knew her father was not coming. And it was, at the end of the day, meant to be a surprise. These women have presumably not met each other in a long, long time. They’ve sort of barely kept in touch. They’re the kind of friends that you don’t need to speak to for months on end to know that you love each other. I think with Frieda it was more of an internal struggle because she knew that the friends would be accepting. However, externally she was afraid of what Suranjana would say because she knew that there could possibly be some bad blood between her and the fact that Nargis used to riot outside the factory. I’m sure she didn’t know exactly what, but she presumed there could have been given both of their temperament. I don’t think that she was concerned at all about the college friends, because the college friends are somebody that just by default of having known you for so long there’s that level of comfort that’s unmatched.
