Veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and debut director Suhrita Das shared their experiences with IANS about their latest film 'Tu Meri Poori Kahani', releasing on September 26, 2025. Bhatt discovered Suhrita, a Kolkata-based hairdresser with a passion for writing, 11 years ago, drawn by the raw honesty of her work rooted in personal experiences. Known for nurturing new talent like Mohit Suri, Bhatt spoke about his commitment to empowering fresh voices in cinema. Suhrita reflected on her journey from literature to filmmaking under Bhatt’s mentorship, emphasizing how he guided her without stifling her creative voice. She also highlighted how her Kolkata roots and emotional storytelling shaped the film. Both praised the soul of the film’s music and Bhatt’s practical approach to filmmaking amid rising production costs.
#MaheshBhatt #SuhritaDas #TuMeriPooriKahani #Bollywood2025 #DebutDirector #IndianCinema #KolkataArtist #StorytellingMatters #FilmMentorship #WomenInFilm #BollywoodDebut #EmotionalCinema #RealStoriesOnScreen #BhattCamp #LowBudgetFilm #CinematicJourney #FemaleFilmmaker #NewVoicesInCinema #IndieFilmIndia #RawStorytelling #UpcomingFilm #HindiCinema #IANS
#MaheshBhatt #SuhritaDas #TuMeriPooriKahani #Bollywood2025 #DebutDirector #IndianCinema #KolkataArtist #StorytellingMatters #FilmMentorship #WomenInFilm #BollywoodDebut #EmotionalCinema #RealStoriesOnScreen #BhattCamp #LowBudgetFilm #CinematicJourney #FemaleFilmmaker #NewVoicesInCinema #IndieFilmIndia #RawStorytelling #UpcomingFilm #HindiCinema #IANS
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00:00Hello, sir. Welcome to INS. Hello, Shumarika. Welcome to INS.
00:02Hi.
00:03And first of all, congratulations for Tomei Kuri Kahane that's about to release.
00:06I want to start off by asking both of you, how did you arrive at the idea for this film?
00:12And then how did you go in filling the colors in those broad strokes from starting to finish?
00:16How was the process?
00:17Well, it started from the life she led.
00:25She comes from Kolkata.
00:27And I ran into her during Durga Puja Festival 10 years ago or 12 years ago?
00:3811.
00:3911 years ago.
00:41And she told me that it was an unusual festival where the theme was about women, about the nirbhaya issue was going on.
00:54And she told me that she is a hairdresser.
01:00Of course, she is married and she has a rich husband and two children and she's settled by the worldly standard.
01:12But there's something unsettled within her because she has this thirst for writing.
01:18And she says that she is a hairdresser, also because by choice, she believes that a woman should do work irrespective of being a housewife.
01:32And she said that she cuts the hair with the left hand and writes with the right hand.
01:39So I was fascinated by her and I said, send me some of your writing and she sent me some of her writing and I was impressed by the kind of recklessness her writing had.
01:53And we were making a film called Hamariya Dhuri Kahani and I wanted one scene in the very end of the film where the picture in a way resolves with the character of Vidya Baden locking horns with the character of a husband.
02:15And where he comes to bully her and where he comes to bully her for the end time and she finally takes up for herself and gives him a mouthful.
02:27And I found that scene was the most unusual scene because it came from her life.
02:37It reflected her tooth.
02:40So I said she is a person who is capable of writing a story which is sourced from her living wounds.
02:49Unlike the most people who manufacture stories through imagination by watching films here, there, everywhere.
02:57So she wanted to come and work with me and so she started working on a project and that project, we worked in the entire film but that project did not get finally onto the floors as it happens here.
03:13Then she stayed on because she worked with me in television.
03:17We made a show called Naam Karan.
03:19But at that time she was very honest and she said, look, I come from a literary background.
03:25I don't know much about cinematic craft because we write images and sound.
03:33It's quite different from the literary world.
03:35So she sat down like empty slate and at times she used to get intimidated that I don't know what I'm saying.
03:45I said, no, no.
03:46We also got to come, we went to study and study and study and study.
03:50And you learn swimming by swimming, you learn writing by writing.
03:54So she began her journey and she has been with me till last year.
04:03Vikram said that let's make your kind of muslima that used to be made, used to make strong, non-star cast, great music, powerful emotions with new people, new director, new actors.
04:20And I remember asking Vikram, who will be the music director because the passion nowadays is to take one song from here, two songs from there.
04:31So he said, Anu Malik.
04:34And I said, fine, okay.
04:36And so I told her because she had expressed to me that I want not only to write, I want to also direct because ultimately the writer's work is translated through images on screen.
04:49So, though I cannot claim to be fully equipped to be a director, but I see that some kind of a beginning I need to make.
05:01So if you are there, over my head, I'll get the confidence to do it.
05:06So I said, I'll be there because Vikram had assigned me the responsibility that if you are going to father this project,
05:12that's why, therefore you get that, see the title, got created by my husband, but actually it's created by her.
05:19All I had to do was chip in here and there and say, this is what I would do.
05:25And her decision will finally hers.
05:26And that's how it began.
05:29And I am very happy with the film.
05:30I'm very happy with the music is doing wonders.
05:34And I feel that in these times to be able to say with such conviction that we have a film that we are very proud of.
05:43And it's cost effective.
05:46It's very made in a very modest budget.
05:52And movies which are made in modest budgets with great music actually recover their costs at the music level itself.
06:00And it has very little money to make in the theater and the other platforms like the OTT and Satellite and etc.
06:07So it's a good beginning for her and I'm very happy that she has begun on the right key.
06:15And for you, Shumata, while you were making this film, him being the mentor on this film, the guiding light, if I may say so,
06:23what was that like to have someone looking back at you, guiding you here and there, not to venture too far into one direction, beast you made?
06:32How was that like for you?
06:34To begin with, the first most important decision or the first most scary decision was to tell him,
06:41Sir, I want to direct.
06:43Because Sir has had a lot of responsibility with me, as a screenplay writer, as a screenplay writer,
06:49he successfully entered me.
06:52So he said,
06:53Okay, now you have to do this too?
06:54I said, yes, Sir, I have to do this.
06:55So I must say that Bhat Saab has a very unique balance of knowing how to guide a talent.
07:02He did not always give me the pressing feeling that he is always watching me on my side.
07:07Like my actors have.
07:09Because writing is my inherent need, I was connected to the script.
07:14And my instinct was that no way, the typical formulaic references are, how do I need to be a hero, how do I need to be a hero, how do I need to be a heroine, how do I need to be a heroine.
07:24I did not want to go by any of that.
07:26So he completely stepped back and he said,
07:30Casting you do.
07:31You know, a person who loves his own values, you know, a person who loves his own values, you know, a person who loves his own values.
07:47He says,
07:52He was a man who loves his own values.
07:56He is very passionate about acting career in my life.
08:01He is a good role for his own values.
08:06I think that's a good role for my career.
08:08It was a good role.
08:10It was a good role.
08:12It was understood and it was made.
08:14And because it's my emotions,
08:16I saw Hiraania's emotions,
08:18but not only two times,
08:20I thought that Hiraania's emotions are the same.
08:22I thought that Hiraania is the same thing
08:24that you can't get into the face of the emotions.
08:26Shammie Duhan,
08:28they played a so-called negative character in my film,
08:32but they have a passion for their acting.
08:36You can't get in any way.
08:40So, because these people are very new,
08:42very driven,
08:44we have the sincerity of them,
08:46on the screen.
08:48When we were sitting at the music sessions,
08:50I and a writer, Shweta Botra,
08:54who is a lyricist,
08:56Shweta, Anusar and Bhat Saab,
08:58we were four sitting.
09:00When we were talking about the discussion,
09:02we were closed in a circuit.
09:04Then, who is a senior?
09:06Who is working with many years?
09:08How much success has been done before?
09:10There is no difference.
09:12Anusar came like a struggler.
09:14He said that this is my first picture.
09:16Bhat Saab says that every picture
09:18when you write in every picture,
09:20you don't understand anything.
09:22That is the first time you are writing.
09:24So, that feeling that these seniors
09:26feel the raw emotions you are feeling,
09:30tell them.
09:32On the set, Bhat Saab was very particular.
09:36If you have a belief,
09:38a belief,
09:40then it is my duty as a senior
09:42to guide you to stick with that.
09:44There will be a lot of opinion around you.
09:46Everyone has a vision for making this film.
09:50But your vision is most important.
09:52So, I learnt that from him.
09:54On set, you can't be flexible
09:56with multiple points of view.
09:58So, Sir is telling me one point.
10:00I am going to take that point.
10:02So, neither has he been
10:04like a ghost,
10:06initiating everything.
10:08No, I am doing it.
10:10Nor has he been aloof.
10:12There was nothing.
10:13In the edit,
10:14I had a little bit of time in the beginning.
10:16But then,
10:18I took it.
10:19I realized that, Sir,
10:21we are rewriting.
10:22Edit table is a rewriting.
10:24So, that is also an organic process.
10:26As a filmmaker,
10:27Zakma Adesatyah,
10:28they are top of the order films
10:29that we have in India
10:30that represent our Indians now.
10:32The other legacies,
10:33supporting young and fresh talent
10:35that go on to make big in the industry.
10:38Mohit is one example.
10:39Shuharita is now with us.
10:41I want to understand this
10:43bent of mind of yours
10:44to nurture fresh talent
10:46as one of the architects of a cinema
10:50who contours,
10:51shapes the contours of a cinema.
10:53What's that bent of mind for you?
10:54Well,
10:55I think there comes a time
10:56when you feel that
10:57you are,
10:58and you realize that
11:00you have been an expression
11:02of a time frame.
11:03This decade
11:05that you have made a film
11:06that you have made a by-product.
11:08Because you have lived those experiences
11:11and you have
11:13metabolized responses
11:15that you have converted into your story.
11:17and you have converted into your story.
11:19But then,
11:20you get to understand that
11:21your idiom,
11:22like everything else,
11:24even the sun gets eclipsed.
11:27So, you get to understand that
11:29now that fire that is there in you
11:32is waning.
11:34And then you find people like Shurita now,
11:50who has enormous thirst
11:52to keep on making films.
11:54then you feel that
11:56it's far more gratifying
11:58to make people
11:59than to make films.
12:01Because,
12:02what more will you do?
12:04How much more
12:05you want to
12:07hunger for validation?
12:09that
12:11you have to say
12:12what you are doing in a good film.
12:14And
12:15with the kind of body of work
12:17you have done,
12:18you have made all kinds of films.
12:19You have made so-called
12:20middle-of-the-road art films,
12:22Marth,
12:23Saharanj,
12:24Janam,
12:25Naam,
12:26Daddy,
12:27Zakm,
12:28Aapne Aashiki Banai Hai,
12:30Naam Banai Hai,
12:32Sadak Banai Hai.
12:33You have made all kinds of films.
12:34So,
12:35what more do you want?
12:38So,
12:39a lot of monotony comes
12:41and then you start getting disinterested.
12:44So,
12:45that phase had come into my life.
12:46And that's when I picked up the...
12:49I was born to that role
12:51of playing
12:53a mentor to people.
12:55Now,
12:56mentoring is not an easy job.
12:57Mentoring means hands-off.
13:00If my fingers come to my fingers,
13:03then it will become the job.
13:06So,
13:07I got into that
13:08feeling.
13:09I got into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:12So,
13:13it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:14So,
13:15it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:17So,
13:18I got into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:22So,
13:23I got into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:26So,
13:27I got into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:34So,
13:35I got into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:38So,
13:39as I got into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:42So,
13:43I got into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:44So,
13:45I got into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:48So,
13:49that was taken into that phase and it has been the most gratifying phase.
13:55So,
13:56and uh, with me, just some, who have, who have produced
13:58and made many films. So, I personally feel
14:01that that's been a far more gratifying phase. And
14:04now, I've been with Vikram, here in some years,
14:09I've created a writing room with them,
14:13where we have worked very well.
14:16And this film has been a very gratifying experience.
14:22And I don't doubt that in the coming
14:25time, you'll find her in the front row
14:28of the entertainment world, uh, as a leading voice.
14:31Because this is fire, it's a pain, and it's a talent.
14:35It's a feeling that I don't get everything.
14:40And in the mind of this component,
14:44that I know a lot of things about my experience.
14:48But there's a lot of things that I don't understand.
14:54then you're ensured of a very long career.
14:59Because not to know is the best thing.
15:02Now, as you move forward, you gain experience.
15:04Uh, and then you start, it's like a puzzle coming together.
15:08You put pieces in that.
15:10And when you look back, you have a long filmography behind you.
15:12And it's all your experience that reflects and manifests in that.
15:18As you move forward, as you climb up the ladder of the storytelling world,
15:22how do you plan to maintain this rawness in you as an artist?
15:27Because rawness is something that is very important.
15:29And once that goes, it's when you lose your voice.
15:31Yes.
15:32So how do you plan on nurturing that or preserving that rawness in you as an artist?
15:36Um, actually, the story again comes back to Vatsaab's writing room.
15:41Direction ki manifestation, I have already done the direction.
15:44But this is what we've been doing for 10 years.
15:46This is what we've done, especially when Shweta came to the camera.
15:52So now, when there was no work for us, we wrote four brilliant scripts.
16:07Now, we will be chewing more on them.
16:09We will be adding layers to them.
16:11And when I and Shweta narrate, we listen with music.
16:15So that is a great on-the-ground practice for us.
16:18When we listen to it, we don't feel good at it, we listen to it.
16:22But with basic learning, I think Shweta also has its own home.
16:26I also have my simple home in Kolkata, where my mother and my child are.
16:31To make the anchor and the root of the stories of that house.
16:37If I keep it, I can maintain this rawness.
16:42Every month I go to Kolkata.
16:44It's like Kolkata's middle of the flight.
16:47And every time I come back to Bombay after those 3-4 days break,
16:53I feel like I have taken a lot of oxygen from my bed and I will come back home.
16:57So the bed will remain in my bed.
16:59There will be a song, a song, a literature, a song.
17:02I like to read the book of Bangla.
17:05So they say that those who are connected to their language, they will never be different from their language.
17:11So I think it's very important to me.
17:12I think it's very important to me.
17:13If you, my whole story, has made this work, music, and I believe that when it's a film,
17:23it will be a lot of people. This is why this has reached this place to me in my eyes.
17:32Because there were two new people who were my students, who were my gladiators,
17:40who was a Shurita, a director, who came from Bengal, and a Shweta,
17:45who came from India, started his life as a lyric writer.
17:50I call Shailendra of India that Shailendra Ji's style is not imitative,
18:00but that kind of writing. And there is a lot of wisdom within it.
18:06So actors are also not new. But I think that this is a very rich thing.
18:15And I often say to my colleagues,
18:21I think that this is an age of reverse mentoring.
18:30And when I think that we have to teach them,
18:32then pause and listen to their stories.
18:35Because our lives are in our eyes.
18:39And we are waiting for us to listen to our stories.
18:42So this was my promise,
18:45that you were my whole story.
18:47I was a Shurita and Shweta.
18:49It was a fascinating story.
18:51And Shweta, you mentioned this one thing, Polkata community.
19:02Polkata has a huge significance in India.
19:06It was one of,
19:07it was the power center of the freedom movement.
19:11In the east, it was Polkata.
19:12It was the capital also.
19:13There is Sangeet, there is food, there is culture.
19:16There is Sangeet.
19:17I will talk about Baul,
19:18Qazi Khazir al-Islam.
19:19There are many intators of the game up there.
19:21Having been born and raised in Polkata,
19:25surrounded by that culture,
19:27how has that shaped up the story?
19:29Of course, we are exposed to Tagore very early in life.
19:33In children's literature,
19:35we also read Tagore's books,
19:37their songs, their poems.
19:40One thing is,
19:42I woke up to Bangla a little late in my life,
19:45because I was studying in the convent.
19:47My first language was English.
19:48So that's genuine love.
19:50When you are in a mature age,
19:52then you open up to your own culture,
19:54your own language in a different way.
19:56So, I started to study Suneel Gangopadhyay.
19:59And film-wise,
20:01they are very interested in Satyajit Reh.
20:04My singular source of inspiration is Rituparnogosh.
20:08Because women's characters,
20:10to portray women,
20:11so closely, so intimately,
20:13and so sensitively,
20:14I feel that I am tired of every time.
20:17I feel that I don't have a vision.
20:19I feel that they are in Bengal,
20:21and they have prepared world-class cinema.
20:23And they have got a very little time.
20:25But he has made world-class cinema,
20:27and I will forever be indebted to him,
20:29and draw inspiration from him.
20:31And sir,
20:32you said that this film has been made with pure heart,
20:37with a lot of love,
20:39and also very modest budget.
20:42In current scenario,
20:44where in the filmmaking,
20:45the entire ecosystem is so much dictated by the corporates,
20:49you know,
20:50where you have huge entourage calls,
20:52you know,
20:53the posts are being risen up.
20:57As a filmmaker,
20:58as a producer,
21:00as I mentioned,
21:01as the architect of our cinema,
21:03what would be your suggestion to let the stories in our films be,
21:07then not burden them with too much of all these peripherals?
21:11Yeah.
21:12Yeah.
21:13Yeah.
21:14Yeah.
21:15Yeah.
21:16Yeah.
21:17Yeah.
21:18Yeah.
21:19Yeah.
21:20Yeah.
21:21Yeah.
21:22Yeah.
21:23So don't know,
21:24whatever no matter how many of these stories are,
21:30you know what happens when you find your attention here.
21:32You and yourisini,
21:33you and your intellect,
21:34I asked situations why they've returned.
21:36Which we don't agree that the film has Full had,
21:37and you faceニ donc sneaky with your attention.
21:38And what are things like that?
21:39Because in HOLY,
21:40you're all talking about the agriculture,
21:41that let us talk about it,
21:42we are talking about the agriculture experience of a art,
21:44particularly,
21:45especially in homemukist society,
21:47how you may have lived experience in ad married,
21:48of which in Asia came so many mayhem knowledge,
21:50and dear energy University of war created us,
21:51now,
21:52is a career that is a career in which it is a career that has been done in the past.
22:02I think that this is a career that's a career that has been done for a career.
22:10That's the career that has been taken to a career that has been done by the field of
22:15When we make a film or a song that we really like, people are not different from us.
22:28If you think that you are such a good person or such,
22:33the one who feels good, the one who feels good.
22:36This is a fact.
22:38And from my last question to both of you, how do you define the music of Tumei Kori Kahani?
22:45Of course, we have the great Anmali, you know, in the film, curating the songs, you know, his voice.
22:52But at the end of the day, if you have to describe it in one phrase or one line or one word, what would be…
22:57In this age of noise, melody is back.
23:03I would say, my film reads like a book.
23:07And to match that, my song, my music is inseparable from it.
23:11It is the spine of the book, which is my film.
23:14Perfect.
23:15So then we have reached the end of this conversation.
23:17Kuchh ashi baat johan se khani rai ghi ho.
23:19Now kuchh hap khani shatatou, hap kai se?
23:21I think so.
23:22I think so.
23:23I think so.
23:24We had everything plus more.
23:25So I think we had everything plus more.
23:27And of course, my hats off to Vikram.
23:28He has…
23:29I think so.
23:30It just…
23:31kuchh hap khani shatat…
23:32So, I think we had everything plus more and of course my hats off to Vikram, who has never
23:58had a feeling that I will ask you, where are you going? Yes, we just said that as much as
24:09we have assigned to the film, we will only make a budget. This mantra has followed us
24:17and we are working on it.
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