Shelly Chopra Dhar attends London Q&A of ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’

With the release of her first directorial gaining huge interest for its compelling storyline of a girl battling with being accepted by her family for being a lesbian, Shelly Chopra Dhar recently came to London where she revealed all about her film ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’. BizAsiaLive.com brings the snippets from the event.

During her interaction, Dhar Chopra was asked how she came up with the idea, and what made her want to make it. She shared, “This is a subject that has been close to my heart for a very long time, and I knew, even when I joined film school that I wanted to make a film of this subject. I just didn’t know that this would be my first movie, and it ended up being my first. I always felt that it was not represented right in the film industry, it was always shown in a very derogatory fashion or almost like a comic relief, and it didn’t do justice as a representation for the community and it just never felt right.”

“In India especially and maybe all around the world, we do take things from cinema. We always go back with some things in mind, we learn from them whether its fashion, whether it’s hairstyles, mannerisms or anything, I always felt that that actually contributed to people’s poor behaviour because that’s what they saw. I wanted to show it in a light which it needs to be shown, that’s it’s the same, love is love, it does not require any confirmation at all,” she went on to add.

The film shows the characters putting on a play that actually represents the film. Talking about this, Dhar Chopra expressed how this was a deliberate move to represent the way society still thinks of the LGBT community. “It’s the play actually that represents the film in the play, and the audience that represents the audience. And the show in the play I show that there are 400 people, they’re very excited they have no idea what they’re about to watch. And then as they begin to watch they begin to react with what they are seeing.”

Being her first film, Dhar Chopra expressed how she did experience some conflict with the way she wanted to tell the story. However, sticking to her guns, she made sure she was able to tell the story how she wants. “I had actually a lot of opposition for that, I had many people saying ‘don’t take out so many people, leave them there, this shot has to be bold and big,’ and I said no, there will be only 1 forth. Literally, I started my theatre with 400 people and made sure that I had 300 leaving. It was a job counting all those junior artists leaving so I didn’t see them  come back again but ended up with 100 people which is a representation of society.”

Knowing the importance of the subject, Dhar is very well aware that this is a film that not all people will accept. However, she understands that it won’t be the masses that will make the difference just yet, it will be the minority who will understand the concept. as she went on to say, “There will be people who don’t want to walk away from it, and there will be people who will stay. For me if out of 100 people, 25 people stay that’s a win.”

‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’ stars Anil Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Juhi Chawla, Rajkummar Rao and Regina Cassandra.