Fenil and Bollywood

On the sets of Teree Sang

•    You have been more known for melodrama. What made you take up an issue like teenage pregnancy in Teree Sang?

Every filmmaker needs a change. While surfing the net, I came across a website called standupgirl.com. where I read many stories about teenage pregnancies and the problems it can create. I realised that this subject could be dramatised very well.

•    What makes your film different from others on the subject?

In our society, this problem is suppressed a lot, our culture doesn’t allow us to speak too much about it. In our country, there are so many laws that we are unaware of. While making the film, I read that 95 per cent of children and 90 per cent of parents don’t know that there is a law called ‘Age of consent’.  Teree Sang will actually tell you that the age of consent is 16 and not 18 as most people believe. The law says that if consensual sex is practised before this age then, it is punishable. Ironically, nobody knows this.

•    It’s not 18?

No, the minimum age to marry is 18. There is some confusion because the ‘Age of consent’ law was made by the British and the ‘Age of Marriage’ was made by our traditional Republic of India. So, one can have pre-marital sex at the age of 16 but marriage can only happen after 18 years of age. In Manipur, the age of consent is 14 years and if the boy is ready to marry then it is 13 years. This is the first time that I am making a film that is so well researched. My story revolves around this girl who is 15 years of age, she enters into a sexual relationship and becomes pregnant. Now it is her decision to abort the child or keep it and she decides not to kill a life. Though she is very young, herself a baby in fact, she is what today’s teenager’s are, capable of taking her own decisions. The youth is no more what it used to be in our times, they are mature individuals.

•    Wouldn’t the film have more of an impact if you had taken known names instead of newcomers?

No, because this film required fresh, young actors. In my film the girl is 15 years old and the boy is 17 years old. If I would have taken a well established face, then his or her image would have overpowered the character. I needed a baby-face girl to carry a baby. So Sheena (Shahabadi) was the apt choice for it. She has a very sweet face. Ruslaan (Mumtaz), though technically not a newcomer since he has had a release, looked like the character of the boy.

•    Is there any other social cause that excites you, that you would like to make a film about?

Yes, it is about this dead man Lalbihari ‘Mritak’. It happens in UP, that to grab a part of your property, your relatives show you dead on paper. It a story of a man who applies for a loan and then comes to know that he is dead on paper. He is told that his uncles have proven him dead. He is surprised and tells the person that he is alive sitting in front of him. Isn’t he a bigger truth than the paper? Then it takes him 18 years to prove that he is alive. He loses his youth, his money, his relationships, his love but fighting for his identity makes him a man, a social worker and a lawyer. An illiterate like him becomes a known entity and he gains a lot of knowledge on many subjects. He thanks God that he faced all this because this is what made him alive. So, he ads ‘Mritak’ to his name which means dead.

It will be made in Hindi but I intend to take it international. I am in talks with some studios. I may even play the lead role; most people tell me I look exactly like a common man and so would be suitable for it. But, for me, it’s first Teree Sang.