It is tougher for a debutant female director to find people to back her film: Sheetal Shetty

Anchor-turned-filmmaker

Sheetal

Shetty's sole focus for the past two years has been her directorial debut,

Window Seat

. "I can clearly distinguish my state of mind between the two lockdowns. Last year, I was upbeat and felt the lockdown was the best thing that happened to me because it gave the kind of time I wouldn't have been able to give the film otherwise. It felt good because I was working on the post production of the film and was looking forward to releasing it," she tells us. Cut to 2021: lockdown two followed. "And I must confess that time this, I wasn't as upbeat. In fact, I was in the throes of confusion and was stressed. Here I am ready with my first film and can't wait for people to watch it, but the situation isn't conducive. The lockdown has been hard on everyone including filmmakers; but more so for debutants like me," she tells us.
Sheetal has chosen a romantic murder mystery for her debut and shares that she's naturally drawn to dark subjects. "

Sappy

teen love stories don't interest me. I like movies with twists and turns. I want to be sitting on the edge of my seat while watching a film. Besides, life isn't all about fine moments. There are so many emotional ups and downs in everyone's life; it's this grey area that I want to tap into in my subjects. Window Seat captures this element despite romance being its core,” points out Sheetal. She's also extremely proud of her actors Nirup Bhandari, Sanjana Anand and Amrutha Iyengar. "Nirup has been such a constant support that sometimes he'd notice some points I had missed out on and help me with them. Along with Sanjana and Amrutha, we have another artiste called Lekha Naidu. They're all such terrific performers and vouch for the fact that it's one of the most comfortable sets they've worked on because a woman was behind the camera. It feels so good to hear that," avers the director. Talk then veers to how there are so few female directors in the industry. "Even when I went out with my script, trying to find someone to back it, I had to do so for years. People would say, "Really? You want to become a director?" or "Weren't you better off as an anchor? Why do you want to take up direction?" The undertone was that women can't figure technical nuances or writing. So I'm grateful that I found backing in

Jack Manju

sir. Once I went on the floors, it's been so good. Some of my biggest supporters have been my male friends, who in fact, also encouraged me to take up direction," she concedes.
Sheetal has done her bit to bring more women into the field though. "Yes, gender bias exists here. But it will only change if we normalise having more women on the set. I had even called for auditions for female assistant directors, but only one turned up. She did a great job. I think women bring a sense of discipline and order when we come to work because we're naturally wired that way. I hope to see more women in my field. As for me, I feel cinema is where I truly belong. A film dealing with all aspects of life is what I dream of making...someday that too shall happen," sums up Sheetal.