Aditya Kripalani is a man who was born to tell stories. He was a script consultant to a leading production house first, so he had to react to other’s stories and improvise them later. The advertising stint equipped him with precision with respect to storytelling, but it was with novels that he unleashed his creative energies as a storyteller; he also turned a song-writer. All these experiences aided his transformation as a filmmaker, as he adapts his novel Tikli and Laxmi Bomb into a film. The story deals with two sex workers and their pursuit of autonomy in their profession.
“I have been a writer and a script consultant for over 14 years now. I’ve been in positions where I had to react to others’ works. That helped me be objective about my own creativity, something that needn’t necessarily happen with every filmmaker,” Aditya says. His biggest challenge was with the locations, the films being shot mostly in the outdoors of Mumbai amid dense crowds with sync sound. The crew had to be prepared for last minute location changes after having done all the homework with respect to art direction. Aditya mentions that sync sound was a creative choice that added to the texture and atmosphere of the film.
“We had to edit out certain sections of the book, as we realised the audience for a book and a film are different.” Turning a filmmaker was a natural progression for Aditya, the corporate and advertising stints taught him enough about working within deadlines and balancing creativity and commerce. “We didn’t take even one extra day of shoot and wrapped a three-hour film within 50 days in locations where the environment wasn’t under our control and there was no studio setup.”
Filmmakers have often typecast the portrayal of sex workers and Aditya was particular to focus on the happy side of their lives. “They are still leading a revolution against men, the film is intense. Yet, the characters here are on Instagram and social networks, are also worried by the number of likes they get, wear T-shirts featuring their favourite pop stars and want the latest mobiles from the market.” The effort was to show there’s normalcy in their lives like any other woman. “I read many books on similar themes, the amount of time I spent talking to sex-workers helped me bring it to life,” he states.
The theme may be on the darker side, but the pace of the film is fast and engaging despite its three hour duration, assures Aditya.
“The storytelling is dramatic and there’s something significant happening every five minutes. Like my novel where I had complete control over the narrative, adapting it into a film and also producing it helped me stay true to the story. A lot of portions in the film turned out to be better than what I had imagined. My advertising stint helped in the minimalism aspect. We hope for the film to do well in the festival circuit too.”
Aditya reveals that between filmmaking and writing, writing comes more naturally to him, given it’s a muscle that has worked longer than the filmmaker in him. “I enjoy films too, I’m an ambivert. The introvert in me likes to write a lot, the extrovert prefers to be a filmmaker.”
