“Yes baby, I’ll be there in a minute.” Veteran actress Supriya Pilgaonkar has just settled her on-and-off screen daughter, Shriya, into a carefully-concealed live-in relationship with her boyfriend, played by actor Shiv Pandit, when she says these words. We assume it’s her daughter. Yet, two minutes later, there’s a twist. Is she really who she says she is? It’s what director Navjot Gulati calls a “quirky Mother’s Day story that’ll leave a smile on your face.”
Among a slew of sentimental advertisements and Mother’s Day Facebook posts, Jai Mata Di , produced by popular storytelling collective Terribly Tiny Talkies (TTT), has minted gold in the form of YouTube views. At over three lakh views in just five days, it joins the ranks of TTT’s acclaimed previous projects, including the month-old Khujli which, with the help of actors Jackie Shroff and Neena Gupta, has amassed over 10 lakh hits.
Director’s cut
The 10-minute short pokes fun at the institution they call ‘The Society Secretary,’ a personification of the rather archaic “ Log kya kahenge” mentality of present-day Mumbai. Manu Rishi, who portrays this role, says, “It’s a very fresh script, and I fully give credit to Navjot, the director. He’s new and comes with his own hunger, freshness, quell, and charm that adds spice to a project like this.”
The project reminded Rishi of filmmaking à la Hrishikesh Mukherjee, so much so that he freed up dates to shoot his five-minute role amidst writing the upcoming Salman Khan-starrer, Tubelight . “Navjot was very clear about the rhythm of the film and his characters; my role has many layered complexities that masquerade under a simple narrative-style. I knew I had to be a part of it,” Rishi tells us.
Signature style
This signature syntax is exactly what TTT fans adore. “We have 20 films that are all curated, financed, creatively produced, and marketed by us,” says creative producer Chintan Ruparel. It’s been three years of themed films and having grown to a strength of 75,000 writers across 4,000 cities worldwide, the collective shows no signs of slowing down. And why should it? The global accolades are pouring in and yet, the constant reinvention of style and content is what keeps the stories exciting.
“In our earlier films, we’ve focused on a topic rather than a particular city’s problem. With Jai Mata Di , we made that shift and picked the most frustrating problem Mumbai’s youth face. Naturally, the way we looked at the mother on Mother’s Day changed as well and we thought this could break the clutter of sappy, nostalgic themed content that floods webpages around this time,” says Ruparel.
Scripts and stories
Operating under Terribly Tiny Tales, India’s largest social storytelling platform, it would seem that TTT has cracked the secret to the perfect short film. But for the creative minds, the process is simple. “There’s no secret, really,” says Ruparel disarmingly. “We don’t like to ‘design’ things for virality. We’d rather tell a good story with all our heart and stumble upon greatness.”
And they have, garnering praise from the likes of Karan Johar and Anupama Chopra for their latest crowd-pleaser.
Although the film has gone viral, Ruparel ascribes it wholly to one entity: the script. “Believing in good stories that move people, and backing them in every possible way, is what we’re all about.”
