‘It was a sign of independence and safety’

Filmmaker Aparna Malladi recollects her fondness for everything Honda

I had just finished college, moved to California and got a job. I was using my friend’s car for a while. Only when you get a pay cheque, do you also get a car loan from the bank. I had just got my offer letter, was eligible to buy a car worth $15,000. It was a Friday evening, the stores were shutting down, and I was thinking of going to work in my own car the next Monday. There was a Chinese manager at a showroom that I went to; he empathised that I was an immigrant, fresh out of college and didn’t hurry through, even if it was time for shutters. He got me the car insurance, and hand-vacuumed the car himself. I was really taken care of; he bent all the rules so that I could get my Honda Civic LX.

The car stayed with me and how! My film career happened through this vehicle. It carried all my film cans in the back and saw all the major highs. It took me to LA from San Francisco; it’s the car I went to Hollywood with. I would service it well, and there were no breakdowns; oil changes were the only thing I had to do with the car. Honda Civic LX is a very smooth car. I fell in love with Honda so much that I bought one more LX later, a hybrid model. It got us better deals and exceptions with the taxes too.

For a girl to have a car like that is comforting, especially in the nights; it was a sign of independence and safety. My career took off with the car and I stayed with it too, until I left America.

I was once extremely impressed by the music that composer Tomas Peire had created for my film,

The Anushree Experiments . He was an immigrant from Spain, trying to make his mark in Hollywood. After listening to the score in his studio, I gifted him the car . I just handed over the keys to him; I thought he deserved something special for the work he did.

The car brought him luck too: He got to work at Hans Zimmer’s studio Remote Control next, and he is still using the same car. This was the empathy we had for immigrants, one helped me and I continued the gesture. After I returned to India, I preferred autos and cabs over braving this traffic all by myself. Even though I can afford a car now, I wouldn’t want to hire a driver and keep someone waiting for hours.

As told to Srivathsan Nadadhur