Magical tales knit together

There are filmmakers and then there are filmmakers with a difference. Ruchika Oberoi, a talented filmmaker, falls in the latter category.

The director of ‘Island City’, a small budget film, returned from the recently-held 72nd Venice Film Festival where her film was highly appreciated.

Set in Mumbai, the film has three comic-dramatic stories woven together and stars Vinay Pathak, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Amruta Subhash and Chandan Roy Sanyal in the lead roles.

“Though the three stories are connected, they are very different in tone and tenor. Each one has a different mood and milieu,” says Ruchika. 

‘Island City’ not only opened to a packed house in Italy and received a standing ovation, but also won the FEDEORA (Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean) ‘Best Director of a Debut Film’ award. Needless to say, Ruchika is delighted.

“When I first applied and got a response from one of the selectors, I had an inkling that they might choose the film. But I didn’t want to keep my hopes too high,” she laughs. “The response was better than what I expected.” 

However, it was not an easy journey for Ruchika as she had written the film way back in 2009. “Since then, I was looking for producers. Then in 2012, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) came on board after I applied to them and fully funded the film,” she says. The movie was in the pre-production stages in 2013 and finally filmed
in 2014.

Ruchika says that the power-packed cast, boasting of names like Vinay Pathak and Tannishtha Chatterjee, was a pleasure to work with.

“Vinay was just amazing. He read the script when no producers were on board
and told me that he would star in the film whenever I made it. He adjusted to the budget without being too demanding and gave a brilliant performance. He even suggested Tannishtha’s name,” she informs.

All praises for Tannishtha, she says, “It’s tough to find an actress of her calibre
in India. She internalises every role and is a director’s dream. Amruta Subhash too brought in a lot of energy to the sets.” 

Ask her about the world of Indian films that is dominated by Bollywood, glamour and run-of-the-mill stories and she says, “It’s sad that the world’s attention is on our independent films and yet, we don’t appreciate them ourselves. But looks like the scenario is slowly changing. Films like ‘Masaan’, ‘Titli’, ‘Court’ and ‘Killa’ are getting a release. The more such films hit the theatres, the more people will watch them and at least a section of the society will get interested in them,” she says.  

Speaking of the big screen release, she is working on getting ‘Island City’ to theatres. “I was very motivated by the international producers I met in Venice and learnt a lot from them. So my plan now is to look for distributors who have the same vision as me and hopefully, the movie will get a release soon,” she signs off.