Nandita Das on her journey in cinema: ‘Although I’ve lost a lot of work, I’m somewhere in the periphery’

She admits that she is not tempted to be part of that race. Instead, Nandita is happy to explore her craft from the periphery, and has no regrets about losing out on roles in her pursuit of the stories she wants to tell.

Nandita on her career

Starting her journey in the world of cinema in late 1990s, Nandita has featured in varied projects such as Fire (1996), Earth (1998), Bawandar (2000), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Azhagi (2002), Kamli (2006), and Before The Rains (2007).

Looking back at her career, Nandita tells us, “Economics is interfering so much with art these days. People say ke acha yeh film box mein mein kaisa tha aur woh kaisa tha (How did this film fare at the box office and how did the other one work). For any form of art, time is the only true judge.”

That being said, Nandita makes it clear that she has no interest in getting involved in the business side of cinema.

“If you want it and you are resisting, then it’s challenging… But it doesn’t tempt me,” says Nandita, who was recently in Delhi to launch #CultureBeyondTextiles’ music initiative by Aditya Birla group’s Aadyam Handwoven led by Manish Saksena; which weaves together diverse musical ragas with myriad hues of Indian handloom.

On her privileges

After helming Firaaq in 2008, Nandita went behind the camera to trace the life of writer Saadat Hasan Manto with Manto (2018). She followed it up with heartwarming Zwigato in 2023.

Nandita shares that she considers it a privilege to be able to hold on to the stories she truly believes in and to turn down projects that don’t resonate with her.

“I feel very privileged that I’m able to at least do what I really like doing despite how difficult it is to be able to be there especially in an industry where people have the whole PR machinery, and get work based on their Instagram followers,” she says.

Nandita continues, “Although I’ve lost a lot of work, I’m somewhere there in the periphery of it. Despite all of those things that I haven’t made a part of my life, I’ve been able to be true to my conscience. And that I feel is a bigger privilege.”

Here, Nandita mentions, “kuch roles miss ho gaye”.

“You pay the price some way or the other. But would you rather make the choice that you want to or live that life … I think that is a great privilege. That is a great freedom. The freedom to say no it’s a greater freedom. Aapko sab kuch toh nahin mil sakta, meri woh lifestyle nahi hai (One can’t get everything. I don’t even have that sort of lifestyle). A lot of my own friends tell me yeh kiya hota ya woh kiya hota toh aisa hota, tum wahan hoti (A lot of my friends tell me that my life would have been different if I would have made some other choices). But I may not have been the same person as I am today. I have no regrets,” she adds.

On her next project

After helming Zwigato with Kapil Sharma in the lead role, Nandita is working on her next, and describes it as her most personal film.

“I’m trying to raise funds a little differently through private investors for the project. It is a couple’s story through which I am trying to decode relationship, marriage, separation, motherhood, everything that I’ve gone through. It’s my most personal project,” she says.

Has it been difficult to look at certain chapters of her past?

“I’ve crossed that place. I’ve been with the story for a while and there was a time when I was too close to it… To be able to even write it. But now I have a good distance from it. I feel like I’m at a good place where I can express and make it more universal. It’s not an autobiography,” she mentions, asserting, “There’s a lot from my life, but there’s also a lot from what I witnessed around me. The conditioning that both men and women go through in the kind of societies we live in, through the patriarchies that we internalise. It is about a lot of things that I care for.”