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Like most ad filmmakers, Gauri Shinde, too, had dreams of making a feature film some day and shoot the same in New York. The debutant director’s dream has been realised with her maiden feature film English Vinglish, starring former diva Sridevi. "For me, New York had always been a dream city to shoot. Even as an ad filmmaker, I always thought if, at all, I ever make a film my first shot of the film will be in this city. There is not much difference between the city of Mumbai and that of New York. Only NY is bigger. But there is a certain kind of cultural buzz there. I wanted to capture that in my film," explained the dreamy eyed bubbly and highly excited Gauri before her film’s release.
A veteran of 100-odd TV commercials like Knorr Soup with Kajol, Havells cables, Tanishq, Bajaj scooter, Gauri gets excited and animated while answering the questions. She says she has been answering the same questions posed by the media but is enjoying doing it. "I am actually excited about all this. Even Sridevi, the protagonist in the film, isn’t used to such tumultuous media attention. When she left films 15 years ago, such pre-release media interaction didn’t exist." On a whirlwind tour across India to publicise her film, Gauri, married to R. Balkrishnan or Balki, maker of films like Cheeni Kum and Paa, is very upbeat about the response she received for her film at the Toronto Film Festival and is expecting similar response from the home audience too. "People ask me, what was Balki’s contribution to the film? It really helps to be married to a person in the same profession. He set up Hope Productions to produce this film and gave us all help to make it as I had visualised. That’s all. It’s completely my dream," explained Gauri. English Vinglish is a sort of comeback film for Sridevi, returning to the big screen after a gap of 15 years. Her character Shashi in her forties and a mother of two, struggles to cope with English, much to the amusement of her family and friends. Visiting New York to attend the wedding of her niece, Shashi’s woes double. That is when she enrols into a class to learn and master the language. Here, she comes across people from different parts of the world wanting to do the same. Before being stumped with the obvious question, she replied, "No, my film isn’t a remake of 1993 Hindi serial Zaban Sambhalke nor its predecessor’s 1977 British sitcom Mind your language. My film, too, has a classroom where people from different nationalities come to converse in the language. But that’s where the similarity ends. This film isn’t only about the language. It is about the anxiety that people have of not knowing certain things, which results in their apprehension in dealing with it and on the way underestimating their own skills." The main inspiration behind the film is Gauri’s mother Vaishali, a former Pune-based spice maker, who could converse only in Marathi. Her mother was a successful masala maker having her own brand ‘Vaishali’, which was very popular among Maharastrian housewives. But she felt inhibited as she couldn’t speak English. "Even highly talented people lack confidence because of not knowing English well. Many in the advertising world are superbly talented in their creative field but as they can converse only in their mother tongue, feel inhibited and shy away to take up challenges," recalled the director. So, when she got the idea of the story, or even while writing it, Gauri thought of her mother and others like her. She never wrote the story with the idea of casting Sridevi in the role of Shashi. "But I know when you watch the film, you will assume that I had always thought of Sridevi only. She suits the character so well that it feels as though I had thought about her while writing it." The film also has Amitabh Bachchan playing a cameo. Asked whether she was intimidated directing the former diva Sridevi and the doyen of Hindi film world Amitabh Bachchan, Gauri said, "Both of them are completely a director’s actor. They are open to suggestions, take instructions, like to be corrected and give a perfect shot. Yes, with Mr Bachchan, I was in awe but he put me at ease in the first shot itself. With Sri, the ice was broken during the story narration. A treasure house of talent, in front of the camera, she completely transforms into her character. She has no starry tantrums on and off the camera." Gauri admits that she found it tough to switch mediums. She had been making ad films of 30-35 seconds duration and now was facing a daunting task of making a 7,800 second long film. "It was tough! On an ad film, we work fast. In a month, we make a minimum of two films. Here, it took me nearly two years to conceptualise the story, then script it. It took me nearly a year to make the film. The main problem was to sustain the initial enthusiasm and the thought process intact for nearly three years!" she said. Kind of films in future? She isn’t sure. But Gauri Shinde is certainly not going to remain a one-film wonder.
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