Vogue India June 2019

http://www.vogue.inVOGUEINDIAJUNE 2019105

view

“AWOMAN’S

TRAJECTORY

ISNOTABOUT

WOMEN’SISSUES

ALONE”

—HUMAQURESHI

NOW

ON

TELLY

Three

books

and

their

TV

adaptations

MY

BRILLIANT

FRIEND

byElena

Ferrante

Outin late2018,

thiscrackling

eight-episode

HBOseriesis a

must-watch.

THE

HANDMAID’S

TALEby

MargaretAtwood

Thefirstseasonof

Atwood’sdrama

pickedupeight

EmmyAwards.

Seasonthreeis out

thismonth.

CATCH-22by

JosephHeller

The 1961 satirical

novelrecently

gota six-episode

seriestreatment

byGeorge

Clooney.It

debutsonHulu.

—TanujKumar

isgoing toblow you away.
Toembodya characterborn
to privilege, wearing these
lovelyclothes,andtosee,in
fiveseconds,herworldbeing
turnedupsidedown—thatis
the mainethosofthis pro-
ject;youcan’tcontrolwhat
is going tohappen. Unless
welookaroundustoday,we
all mightbe walking down
theroadtoLeila.

HQ: Whenwewereshoot-
ing,justknowingthata sys-
tem failure can actually
happen at any moment in
one’slife,andthiscouldbe
ourtomorrow,wasscary.

DM:Yes,it is.It’scontem-
porary. If I had read Or-
well’s 1984 today, I would
thinkit is today.Thisstory
isnotThe HungerGames;
it’s more Black Mirror in
that sense. It is here and
now and yet it isn’t. The
foundationsofLeilaarebe-
inglaidtoday.

MM:Whatcanweexpect
fromtheshow?
HQ:Theshowis a veryim-
portant statement on the
state of affairs today.It is
definitelyapointofviewofa
woman—her journey and
searchfor her child—but I
thinkit is alsoa verypower-
fulstatementonpolitics,on
theenvironmentalsituation
thatweareintoday’sworld,
andit is a warningofwhat
canhappenif youdon’tpay
anyheedtoit.

DM:I likehowHumaputs

it.Youknow,thefuturecan-

nothappenif thepresentis

notreadyto makeit happen.

MM:Thebookis setin

Indiabutdoesn’tspecify

a city.Whatmadeyou

pickDelhiasthe

backdropforthefilm?

DM:Locationsreally ham-

merin thepointof wherewe

areandwherewecouldbe.

Delhiembodiesallthat.We

hadcertainoptionsofcities

togo through—Hyderabad,

Bengaluru, Mumbai. But

maybe because I am from

Delhi and know the city

well,it feltlikeit shouldbe

setthere.

It hadtobea placethat

canmarrythepastandthe

future. In Delhi you have

Lutyens’Delhiandthesev-

en cities of Delhi—Shahja-

hanabad, Tughlaqabad, Fi-

rozabadandsoon.Thenyou

haveSouthDelhi,Gurgaon

and Noida. So, there’s the

13th-century Qutub Minar

tothe21st-centuryDelhito-

day. And shooting in the

Delhi winter, where the

smog is so thick you can

hardlysee, we didn’t need

anyvisualeffectsandprops

to hint at the natural

calamityaheadof us.

MM:Leilais thestoryof

a womantoldbya

largelyfemalecrew.Did

thischangethestory-

tellinginanyway?

HQ: Prayaag has done a

beautifuljobofcreatingLei-

la. But most books/scripts

don’t,andyoucan’tnotask:

Why do we treat women’s

stories througha particular

lens,withkidgloves?A wom-

an’s trajectory is not about

women’sissuesalone.InIn-

diancinema,a careerwoman

is always supposed to be

harsh and bossy, while the

stay-at-home mom is soft

and nurturing—we tend to

pigeonholewomenintothese

stereotypicalroles.Asa team

offeminists,wetriednotto

make those mistakes with

Shalini’scharacter.

DM:AsToniMorrisonsaid,

“Allgoodartis political,” and

thatis therealityofLeila. It

doesn’t matter what lan-

guageyouspeak,whatcaste

youareorhowmuchmoney

you have—this is a human

story. It is most definitelyan

Indianstoryanda woman’s

story,butmorethanthatit’s

alsoonethatanyonecanre-

lateto.Whatis happeningin

Leila’s worldis happeningin

India,intheUS,acrossEu-

rope, in England, Turkey,

the Philippines, North Ko-

rea...Leilareflectsthe world

asweknowit today.

MM:Withbookadapta-

tionsthere’salwaysthat

question—willit beas

goodasthebook?

HQ: Or will it be better?

(laughs)

DM:It willbebetter!n

DeepaMehtais oneofthedirectors

andthecreativeexecutiveproducer

ofLeila