Anvita Dutt on Qala: ‘It was all about him being Jagan and not Babil or Irrfan Khan’s son’

Director of Qala Anvita Dutt talks about being inspired by her own personal journey, the feeling of being not good enough and how we all go through the process of asking for outside validation. Jagan played by Babil Khan was the spiritual center of Qala. Anvita Dutt always wanted to tell a mother-daughter story, and Qala was an expression of that. Anvita has always been driven by the inner world of women and how they react and feel about themselves.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

On casting Babil Khan as Jagan for Qala…

I auditioned many boys for Jagan’s role. So, it was on the basis of his audition that I cast him. There were many wonderful auditions, but somehow Babil felt like Jagan. He was the right age and he has what is called a God particle. There is something about him which seems otherworldly which Jagan’s character demanded.  Babil is almost like the spiritual center of the film. Taking Babil wasn’t pre- thought. He auditioned for it.

How was your experience like working with Babil Khan?

I was not looking at him as Babil or someone from the industry or as Irrfan Khan’s son, I was looking at him as Jagan. What was important was this boy was bringing it all to the table and he was special and he was the right fit for Jagan and that is all that matters at the end of the day.

All stories of yours come out from some inspirations, what was your inspiration for Qala?

I always wanted to tell a mother daughter story. And there are not enough of those out there and the fact was that this feeling that we all women have that we are not enough and we need outside validation to help us become who we are that is something that has been my personal journey as well. And we have all gone through this whether it’s in our careers or in our personal life that you are constantly seeking someone’s stamp of approval that you are capable. So to find a center in yourself and realise that you don’t need someone else to tell you who you are. We know who we are and that we need to be confident about it. We have this confidence about ourselves when we are small children, just that we lose it along the way and then we spend a lifetime trying to find it back. So, more than inspiration, it is also what I want to say in that moment and my stories are always driven by that whether it is patriarchy or the need for validation or quality upbringing or the choices that you make.

Stories are the best way to talk to the world and they are conscious keepers of the world. And I have friends who are psycho analysts and we have always spoken about the inner world of women and how they react and feel about themselves. Everything is driven by that and that is where it came from for all my stories.

We have seen it in your film Bulbbul and now in Qala too… What does it take to create such a different world?

First of all, I am a reader and not a watcher and what reading does to you is that it exercises the muscle of imagination. So you are able to see and visualize things that might not even exist whereas when you watch stuff it is given to you. So, it’s a second hand image. Hence reading helps me to imagine. I create visual metaphors for what people feel being in the shadows or being under a spotlight. I find these dramatic visuals and I try interesting ways to tell what the characters are feeling. That happens on the first stage on paper when I am writing and then of course when I execute it it becomes sharper. The reference that I use comes from art. I pick up elements from art when I want to show oppression.

Do you relate to any characters from Qala?

I don’t think there is a specific person because it’s an imaginary story. There is not a specific incident, but it’s a lifetime of those days and moments when you want to just ask someone why is it not enough whatever I am doing? Why is it that I have to please people around? Why is it that I have to prove myself again and again for you to think that I am great? I think that feeling is something that comes from life as a whole. Somewhere having lived a life of fifty years, I have seen that it is a feeling that is common amongst most people and specifically women. So, that feeling is my driving force and inspiration. It’s a collective feeling that I have tried to capture. That darkness sometimes that we go into the shadow combined together, I wanted to show that in Qala.

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