Tahira Kashyap says her debut film as director, Sharmajee Ki Beti, is about struggle and ambition

PTI

There is a bit of Tahira Kashyap in all the five female leads of Sharmajee Ki Beti, says the director about her first feature film, a passion project that she hopes will make audiences see women in a different light. Tahira, who has been always been a storyteller, first as a writer of books like The 12 Commandments of Being A Woman and The 7 Sins of Being A Mother, and then as a filmmaker of the short Toffee.

“Sharmajee Ki Beti chronicles the stories of ambition and struggles of three middle-class women and two teenage girls, who all share the same surname — Sharma. I think the first piece of art comes from a place of a lot of purity, a lot of passion. You are passionate about the things that you experience and observe. “All of these five characters, three women and two girls, there is some amount of storytelling experience I have observed at the personal level. So it comes from a very pure place of heart,” Tahira said.

The film, which will start streaming on Prime Video from Friday, features an ensemble cast comprises Sakshi Tanwar, Divya Dutta, and Saiyami Kher, Vanshika Taparia and Arista Mehta. “As a storyteller, the aim was not to be preachy but make people connect, engage and empathise with the lead characters,” she added.

“It should evoke some sort of emotion in the audiences’ hearts and their minds, and if something reaches their hearts it will also leave an impression on their minds as well. That’s how I want my messaging to happen. It was never that I wanted to be preachy or try to drive home a point. I really want people to start thinking about women in a different light altogether. I would wish all of that to happen with just a click but it takes time and I am ready to invest in that time in the most loving and compassionate way.”

Breaking stereotypes

According to Tahira, the idea behind having three middle aged women and two under the age of 20 was to connect with a whole spectrum of audience.

“They exist on the spectrum of lifespan and they still have interesting and compelling stories to tell. So the idea was to delve into the stories of the women who just don’t adhere to the certain stereotype of the women that have been shown in cinema,” she said.

Though she has loved making short films, directing her feature gave her a ‘different kick’, the director, who also helmed a short in the 2020 anthology film Zindagi in Short, said.