The element of journey in Goswami’s story helped Rao bring her own visions to life. “It let me to explore many ideas along the course of the journey; like being lost is not such a bad thing,” she says, adding, “While the story is set in a village (rural Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra), it has universal issues at its core.”The 50-year-old filmmaker and producer understands that she has stepped back into filmmaking at a time when people have access to all kinds of stories and in multiple formats. But she doesn’t remember being unsure of Laapata Ladies, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, ever. “Yes, it is harder today to make something that cuts through all the clutter and immediately attracts people. But we are also being pushed to produce better work,” she says, adding, “I felt this story had the makings of that because it is juicy and chatpata (spicy). The fact is when a story—irrespective of the language, length or format—has the power to make you curious, it becomes easier for the storyteller.”Federico Fellini, Andrei Tarkovsky and Wong-Kar Lai are some of the filmmakers Rao has been influenced by, but off-late, she admits to have fallen victim to the K-drama frenzy. “There is a whole variety of genres they make, and there is a lot to learn from their storytelling. I am not good with horror and gore, but I love romance, and hope to make a fantastic romantic film someday,” she says. But, that could be a decade-long wait.
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