Vogue India June 2019

104 VOGUE INDIA JUNE  http://www.vogue.in

COURTESY

JAMES

MINCHIN

Is thisnewdystopianNetix serieswhat

India’stomorrowlookslike?Deepa

MehtaandHumaQureshi, twofeminist

forces,unitetoplotthefutureof

storytellingthroughonewoman’sstory.

a Mahindru

SCREEN

GUARDS

TELEVISION

When British satirist and television auteur Charlie Brooker

was asked to place his techno-dystopian show, Black Mirror,

on a timeline, he stated that the futuristic drama was “the

way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time if we’re clumsy.”

Filmmaker and producer Deepa Mehta seems to be on the

same page with her latest project, Leila, a television adapta-

tion of Prayaag Akbar’s gripping novel, which she has co-di-

rected with Shanker Raman and Pawan Kumar. Releasing

on Netfl ix as a six-part series this month, Leila is the story of

a mother’s (played by Huma Qureshi) search for her daugh-

ter, but ends up being a larger indictment of society, present-

ing unmissable parallels to contemporary Indian politics. It’s

a nightmarish vision—a to-

talitarian government, sur-

veillance systems, communi-

ty segregation, rigid

patriarchy, extreme inequal-

ity and environmental col-

lapse. But Mehta is right—

this alternative universe

isn’t so far-fetched; it cap-

tures the global unease in

politics today—but what she

also does is give us a heroine

with hope. Mehta and

Qureshi give Vogue a peek

into what to expect from

Leila.

Megha Mahindru: What

made you want to adapt

the book into a series?

Deepa Mehta: I knew I

had to do Leila because I fell

in love with the book. It is

women-oriented; it is about

the triumph of women and

revolves around how the

protagonist, Shalini, goes

about not only fi nding her

daughter but also herself,

against all odds. I think even

if I’d been given to direct the

pilot of Leila 10 or 20 years

ago, I’d have still done it.

Somewhere, through my

voice, I am contributing to a

discussion that is extremely

important to me.

Huma Qureshi: For me,

that call I got from OpenAir

to be part of this series was

life-changing. They sent me

the book to read, which I ab-

solutely loved, and then I

got to know about Deepa di-

recting it. I am a huge fan of

her work and I knew this

was going to be something

very special.

In India, our content is

fi lled with male stories and

gangster dramas. This story

had a lot of variety and diver-

sity and that for me was very

exciting. Working with good

material is refreshing and

liberating. Honestly, this is

my most authentic work,

which Deepa has managed to

extract out of me.

DM: Huma’s performance

Deepa Mehta

Huma Qureshi