'I Lived Her Pain For Months': Divya Dutta On Playing A Mother In Echoes Of Valour Post Venice Film Festival Screening

Echoes of Valour, starring Divya Dutta and directed by Indira Dhar, moved audiences at the Venice Film Festival with its deeply human tale.

Transcript

00:00Echoes of Valor has found its first screening at the prestigious Venice Film Festival and the

00:19response we got was overwhelming. It's so amazing to see people from different cultures coming

00:26together watching your film and one reaction coming from all and that is speechless. For a while everyone

00:32was quiet until they all came out of the theatre and gave their reactions. I guess somewhere we

00:39all feel the same and somewhere it resonates beautifully so I'm glad we had this beautiful

00:45screening in Venice and just love to thank the audience here and I'm sure it's gonna soar higher

00:52and reach where this film really deserves to reach. The most challenging thing about being

00:58Shukla Bandhavadhyay was that first of all it's not an easy life to live. She's been an epitome of

01:07strength, grit and grace and just talking with her was like a huge responsibility coming my way. I

01:17could foresee that it's gonna be a lot of hard work and the hard work lay in not just giving all your

01:27lines and being on the set the way you have to but feel the pain that she had, feel the grief that she

01:36had tried to be as sincere as genuine to her story and it became such a huge thing because many times she

01:47was on the set watching herself being played so yeah that was my first that I had when I'm doing a biopic

01:57on someone's life and that person is on the set with you. I think it's a surreal experience and a huge

02:02responsibility. We live in very tough times where everyone is talking about war. This story transcends

02:11above all that about human relationships, about human bonds, about the families that suffer because

02:18of war and here is the story of this very strong woman who's a mother and she in spite of losing her

02:27son to the Lord takes the message of love and to the other countries and and just spreads this thing

02:37that if we teach our children love I think this this war and everything else the loss that comes with

02:46it might lessen out not just for people who give away their lives but for the families who are attached to

02:53these army people the young lads everyone who gives away their lives so it's a beautiful message it

03:02overwhelms me to see a message of love coming in the difficult times we live in and I think for that

03:08matter Echoes of Valor is a very very important film in today's times. So we are here at the Venice Film Festival

03:14representing Echoes of Valor and I'm playing the character of Hady Ryan in the film who is a professor and

03:21he acts as a catalyst in the film helping the protagonist get to her end goal. I don't want

03:26to tell more about the about what I'm doing in the film because it will reveal the story of the film

03:32but I can guarantee you once you watch the film if you don't cry in the beginning of the film

03:40I'll probably take you out for dinner if you don't cry but it is a very emotional film it uh it talks

03:46about topics it touches the topics of patriotism it touches the topics of her mother's love

03:51and the extent to which a mother is ready to go just to you know just to know what has happened to

03:59their child and it resonated a lot with me because I'm very close to my mother and I can't wait for

04:06you guys to watch it because it is a beautiful film beautifully conceptualized written and directed by

04:12Indra Dhar and yeah that's that's pretty much all I can speak about the film right now uh coming to

04:18Venice with the film um I would again like to thank my director for having me in this film because uh

04:25it's my first film festival and that was such a prestigious one um everyone who saw the film

04:31they loved it and it was a common reaction from people that they could not stop crying

04:35so yeah echoes of valor we're not ready for it