Renuka Shahane on Tribhanga: I think mom's writing and thought process has influenced me a lot

Renuka Shahane

If not for filmmaker Sooraj R Barjatya, Renuka Shahane would possibly have given up acting nearly three decades ago. At least, that, she recalls, had been the plan. After playing Pooja in the 1994 blockbuster, Hum Aapke Hain Koun…!, Shahane had almost made up her mind to quit being in front of the camera. She wanted to pursue a filmmaking course at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. "I told Sooraji about my plans. And he said, 'Are you crazy, you just can't leave [acting]." Barjatya instead suggested that she learn on the job. "He said, 'Look at me, I don't have technical training. If you get a good team [to work with you], and have a vision and story to tell, nothing should stop you.' That seemed to make a lot of sense, because I was getting a lot of [acting] offers at that time," recounts Shahane, when we speak to her days ahead of the release of her Hindi directorial debut on Netflix, Tribhanga - Tedhi Medhi Crazy.

Starring Kajol, Tanvi Azmi, and Mithila Palkar, it's a dream that took an eternity to realise, but patience has been second nature to her. "I have always been passionate about direction. I began by assisting Dr Vijaya Mehta in the serial Lifeline [it aired on Doordarshan]. I was the fourth assistant there. Vijayabai was like an institution. She was so thorough and such a great guru to have. At that point, I thought I am going to do this forever. After my MA in Psychology, I was planning to do a PhD and then go to film school. Basically, I wanted to take the proper route and get trained. But life happened, and I became a professional actor."

Director Renuka Shahane on the sets of Tribhanga - Tedhi Medhi Crazy

She, however, kept waiting for an opportunity to come to her. In the late 1990s, she directed an episode for Zee Television's Rishtey, a drama series that focused on human relationships. "I took a sabbatical when my kids were born. At that time, it was my husband [Ashutosh Rana], who reminded me of my dream. He said, 'Listen you have some time at home, so why don't you work on a screenplay.?" Shahane turned homewards for inspiration, directing the Marathi film Rita (2009), based on her mother, veteran writer-translator Shanta Gokhale's book, Rita Welingkar. "I absolutely loved that novel, and because it was my mom's work, I didn't have to worry with permissions," she laughs. "When the screenplay turned out well, mom said, 'You have a writer in you'."

It's around that time that the two worlds of writing and direction collided. This is the first time that Shahane is bringing an original story of hers to life, and it hasn't come easy. "These characters first formed in my head in 2013, when I had participated in Mumbai Mantra's Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab. Though, I had done a film, I had wanted some mentoring, in order to understand how stories are constructed," she says.

Kajol and Tanvi Azmi share a difficult relationship in the film

The idea for the plot, Shahane says, had come to her many years ago, when she was shooting for the show, Surabhi (1990-2001) with Siddharth Kak. "I had met a woman who was recently married. She told me that she was finally happy to be free from the clutches of her mother, whom she hated. I was stunned by the fact. I have such an excellent relationship with mine; she is my core. That was really the starting point. I wanted to write about women, who are not looking for men to marry, who are not somebody's wives. It was also about the choices they made, how those choices passed down from generation to generation. That is at the crux of the story."

When an estranged mother (Azmi) slips into coma, her daughter played by Kajol, a self-made single mom grapples with regret and resentment, while reflecting on their strained relationship.

The script, she says, was mentored at the lab with writers like Bill Wheeler, Anjum Rajabali and Asif Kapadia giving her direction and suggestions. But, it took another three years to develop it, before director Siddharth Malhotra agreed to produce it along with Ajay Devgn. During this time, it was Gokhale, who was her sounding board. "It's just so nice to have her around. Writing can be a very lonely process, and you require a support system that truly understands what you go through, and mom understands that beautifully. She has also written scripts. There are these tricks of the trade that she shares with me, or some perspective that she comes up with, which helps break the writer's block that I experience very often," says Shahane, adding, "I must admit that I am not a prolific writer. If it flows, it really flows. Sometimes, I am interrupted by everyday duties, and there can be months, when I am absolutely blank in the head. That's when my mother's tricks help me." Gokhale, she says, is not just a gifted storyteller, but also her biggest inspiration. "I think mom's writing and thought process has influenced me a lot. She is such a committed writer, and there is so much that I need to learn from her - the discipline, the craft. And these you cannot just pass down. But, whenever she reads my writing, she says that I have a quirkiness, which she would love to have in her own. That, I think, is a big compliment."

Shahane now hopes to continue writing and direction, even more seriously. "Everyone in my team is telling me that I better not take another 10 years to make the next film," she says, breaking into giggles. "To be honest, I really like the process of writing. I am not fond of being in the public eye. That's a journey that I am very uncomfortable with. Although, I am on social media, and I am a very social person, I love my solitude.

Writing allows me that," she says. "I might, though, look out for scripts by other writers [that I can direct], because writing for me is very slow. I am also overcritical about my work. So, if it takes time, it does."