Director Anu Singh Choudhary Makes Debut Short Film About Down Syndrome

OutlookIndia

Director Anu Singh Choudhary makes her debut short film 'Selfie, Please' about family life with Down Syndrome. Inspired by her cousin Ananya, born in 2001, the film explores challenges faced by families including discord, fatigue, and mental health concerns for caregivers. Anjali Polite, the other key actor, from whose POV 'Selfie, Please' is told, an Odissi dancer also has close family member with Down Syndrome. The film focuses on love, kindness and awareness as foundations for families living with neurodivergent conditions.  00:00 – 00:34 | The Unspoken Struggle 00:34 – 01:36 | The Story of Ananya 01:36 – 02:34 | The Myth of Normal 02:34 – 03:14 | Families in Silence 03:14 – 04:06 | Filmmaking as a Challenge 04:06 – 05:18 | A Collective of Care 05:18 – 06:20 | Building Trust, Building Family 06:20 – 07:29 | Compromise and Compassion 07:29 – 08:08 | Confidence and Independence 08:08 – 08:41 | The Invisible Sibling 08:41 – 09:27 | Breaking the Stigma  Follow us: Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/ X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia  #SelfiePlease #AnuSinghChoudhary #ShortMovie #DownSyndrome

Transcript

00:00we are all different from each other every individual is different and every individual

00:04at some point to the other will go through once in their life some amount of mental health

00:12challenge can we identify that can we talk about it more because if it is not talked about or if

00:20it is not recognized then it becomes a chronic problem

00:30so if we please comes from a very personal experience and ananya who plays herself i mean

00:39she she was born with down syndrome she's my first cousin youngest cousin in fact when she was born i

00:45was 21 22 and ever since she was born i have seen her journey up close she was she's one of the most

00:52loved people in the family having said that it's not easy to be raising somebody with down syndrome

01:01on any form of neurodivergence or any form of for that matter congenital genetic challenge

01:08that also adds to something which we don't talk about especially for caretakers or close family

01:15members because the pressure of taking care of somebody with a congenital or genetic problem

01:23whether it is autism or any form of neurodivergence really which is autism or even say dyslexia is not

01:32easy because then this is this is what is known as the the sense of the myth of normal that we all live

01:39with we want everything to be normal and that is what selfie please uh sort of questions and that

01:46is where the idea came from that what is this myth of normal family and uh what happens really and if

01:51you come to think of it there is nothing called normal the abramate has as rightly has written the

01:59book called the myth of normal normal is myth and everything is extraordinary and there's nothing

02:05called normal family which also means that we are looking at very different aspects we're all

02:10individuals we all have challenges um the data says that one out of four people especially in india

02:17will have some form of mental health challenge or the other uh which could be as acute as bipolar of

02:25different kinds or depression of different kinds or addiction of different kinds which which leads to

02:31some sort of mental health challenge uh and yet it is considered something which one doesn't want to

02:38talk about visiting a psychiatrist is still considered a thing of you know hiding not you know you you do

02:45this hush hush you don't tell people that you're on medication therapy still look down look down upon

02:51counseling is looked down upon so all of these things um we have witnessed and uh i wanted to sort of

03:01explore that when there is one such specific uh condition what happens really within the family

03:09and that is where the idea came from and uh it filmmaking as you know is a very expensive proposition

03:16it requires so many things i mean everything has to align everything has to come in place which means

03:23it's a huge investment which also means that we are all running against time and there is something

03:27that we want to tell and specifically if you have somebody working with you or you working with

03:32somebody who has some sort of challenge or a different kind of inability then uh the you don't

03:41i mean you as a filmmaker you don't have the luxury of time but you also can't be insensitive

03:46to the to to to to the person whose story you want to tell i mean i can't i couldn't have pushed

03:52ananya into a position where uh it became overwhelming there was 75 people on the set

03:57so how do you then so that was the biggest challenge in that sense which we had to navigate

04:02but i have to admit that i had the most wonderful cast and crew which really came together because

04:10they believed in the story and when i took the script to whoever i took it to whether uh to the

04:16actors or to the crew that they put together everybody had one such story to tell of you

04:23know somebody from down syndrome or some form of autism or some form of other challenge and

04:30therefore i think there was an overarching sensitivity which was largely there and we were all aware

04:37that we have to do our prep work in a way where it doesn't become overwhelming for her so anjali and

04:44ananya who play the two sisters had never faced the camera so and they're not sisters in real life

04:52so then there was some sort of a chemistry that needed to be built um the mother who was playing

04:56herself the mother sarika brilliant actor like vikas and sarika's actors were brilliant they took

05:02time and effort purely because they're really invested in the story they really thought this was an

05:08important uh film to be a part of so they gave their love in the form of time they sat down with both

05:16the actors and really worked around in a way where they were given a lot of trust these two girls had

05:24a lot of trust coming from um the actors who were to play their parents and the time that was being

05:31shared between the two of them was also uh very precious because that they really bonded as sisters

05:37so much so that ananya till today has her screen saver of the phone as anjali and ananya's picture

05:43so she's she's so close to an angelina which is such a heartening thing and because they were to play

05:49sisters i made sure that they were actually staying at my house and they stayed there for 15 days and

05:56there's a lot of interaction that was happening between the two of them they were eating together

06:01they were hanging out together so all of those things began to actually really work and which

06:06means that if we had three days of shoot we can pull it off because there was very natural chemistry

06:13that was working out between them uh did i not have to compromise as a storyteller yes i would have

06:20wanted to shoot more uh especially for climax for example or would have wanted to do more

06:26just in terms of exploring the nuances of the relationships but it was a tough call i mean

06:30i had to choose between how much do i want to push ananya to perform because she was getting

06:36overwhelmed in order to tell the story so it was a very fine balance i've never done this before

06:42so it was that way very tough uh one and the one thing that i have learned not just as a filmmaker

06:48but also as a person is that there is nothing that can replace kindness empathy and love and you have

06:59to like especially films which are very personal have to come from a space of like really letting go

07:09so as uh sometimes as a person you have to make certain choices in order to compromise with the

07:16filmmaker or the artist that you want to be it's okay to not get those shots but it's not okay to put

07:23pressure on um somebody who's already overwhelmed by the entire product production process having said

07:30that this has given ananya so much confidence that she wants to act more and when the film started to

07:38sort of do the festival rounds and it went there were there were other uh beautiful uh children with

07:45down syndrome who saw the film it gave them so much confidence that they really want to explore

07:50and then anya now wants to like be financially independent so uh in that sense i think that's a big

07:58win for the film um and the other win for the film is that we've been able to without mentioning without naming it

08:11underline the challenge that the other sibling faces the other sister who's also in that sense

08:16going through her invisible pain which is that of which is coming from neglect so in order to serve

08:24one kind of condition what we don't realize is we are causing you know another kind of condition so

08:33everybody has to be seen and everybody has to be heard and that is that is the core of i think what

08:39you're also trying to do through the special edition on you know breaking the stigma of uh mental health

08:44because the whole point is that none of us we are all very different from each other like the father

08:52says that so this is exactly what it is that we are all different from each other

09:01every individual is different and every individual at some point to the other will go through once in

09:08their life some amount of mental health challenge can we identify that can we talk about it more

09:17because if it is not talked about or if it is not recognized then it becomes a chronic problem then it

09:24becomes an epidemic which already seems to be our case and then we don't know how to deal with it

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