Tisca Chopra jokes her marriage with Saali Mohabbat co-writer Sanjay Chopra was on the brink of divorce every day: ‘Our neighbours thought…’

Tisca Chopra has turned director with Saali Mohabbat, backed by Manish Malhotra’s Stage 5 Productions, and starring Radhika Apte and Divyenndu. The film, streaming on ZEE5, revolves around a homemaker and a plant lover who discovers that her husband is cheating on her sister. But Tisca is no stranger to plants, infidelity on screen, and even storytelling. Remember her short film, Chutney?

On this edition of SCREEN Spotlight, Tisca talks about the similarities between Chutney and Saali Mohabbat, casting Anurag Kashyap the actor, why she gave up on her career as a lead actor in the 1990s, avoiding mother roles after the resounding success of Taare Zameen Par, and surprising everyone by playing a sex symbol in Raj Mehta’s films.

Saali Mohabbat is your directorial debut feature, but you’ve helmed the 2020 short film Rubaru earlier. Did that experience serve as a training ground for your feature debut?

Yes, indeed it was. I made three short films — Chutney (2016), Chhuri (2017), and Rubaru. I acted in and wrote all three. I produced two of them, and directed Rubaru. But I was so closely involved in the making of even Chutney and Chhuri — whether it was being a part of the edit or taking all decisions, creative to crewing up — that does help because whether you make a short film or a feature film, it’s a film. With Chutney, we made a very deliberate attempt to shoot it like a feature. I got Jay Oza, who shot my show 24 (2013), and later did Gully Boy (2019) and Made in Heaven (2019), to do it for me as a friend. We used drones! People didn’t take short films very seriously. But after Chutney, everybody became very serious about short films. For me, that was the first time I wrote anything. The fact that people connected so viscerally and deeply with it gave me wings because I thought I could play this game. Screenwriting is a game you play with the audience — what do you hold back and what do you show?

Was directing a feature any different?

Directing a feature is a completely different animal. The number of questions people ask you on set is mind-numbing. It starts in the morning even before you wake up. Your direction team has questions like, ‘How high should the lamp be? What is the colour and font size of the number plate of a car?’ There was no unease because I knew the script really well. At the end of the day, I kept telling my team that even if we place the camera simply, we’re okay. We don’t need to complicate it beyond a point because it doesn’t lend itself to (David) Fincher kind of shots that the camera is coming out of the dustbin. We’re not doing a visually complex tale. It’s an emotionally complex tale. The story is the star. So, you also need to know what kind of film you’re setting out to make.

Radhike Apte in Saali Mohabbat.

Saali Mohabbat is quite a spiritual sequel to Chutney. The first similarity is that both have seemingly harmless women with a lot simmering within. Do you know such women in real life?

No, thankfully not (laughs). Not just women, but all of us have what I call a ‘party face,’ which you take out to the world. But we’re not our masks. Nobody really knows what’s going on in the world. Each one of us is winging it moment to moment. I say I’m an Indian, an actor, but the moment something happens to my mother, I’m nothing but just another human being struggling to see the loss of another human being whom you love deeply. So, when one’s POV clashes with another’s, that’s the biggest drama for me to watch. I don’t need Titanics to crash into icebergs. For me, those human interactions are big enough Titanics.

Tisca Chopra in Chutney.

Anurag Kashyap played your husband in Chhuri. And in Saali Mohabbat, he plays a cop. How did his casting take place?

I launched him (laughs). Anurag is a dear friend. We look out for each other. He’d read the script, called me, and said, “This is India’s Parasite. I’ll make this one.” Then the lockdown happened. His company went through some changes. I called up Anurag and said I’m making it with Manish Malhotra. He wished me luck. As luck would have it, the actor who was supposed to play Gajju bhaiya, he had an accident and broke his shoulder. He called me six days before the shoot and told me he can’t do it. I thought maybe he could put a sling, but I didn’t want to be a bad human being and put someone through pain. So, I called up Anurag. He was in Australia. I told him what happened. He said, “Parso aa jata hu.”

Anurag Kashyap as Gajju bhaiya in Saali Mohabbat.

Was Manish Malhotra supposed to be the costume designer on one of your first films?

Yes, it was a film called Khilona. Directed by Mahesh Bhatt, it had Aditya Pancholi and another actor, Prithvi. We did the mahurat, but it never took off. I’ve known Manish since then. So, when I narrated Saali Mohabbat to him, he listened to it for two to three minutes and said, “I’m making it.” Since that day, he’s never taken a single step back. He’s been there like a rock.

His debut production, Gustaakh Ishq, didn’t work in theatres. So, were you glad that Saali Mohabbat released on ZEE5 instead?

Every story has a DNA. This story isn’t an extravaganza film. Perhaps it would’ve released in theatres 20 years ago because it’s set within a house. Today, the language of cinema and the expectation that the audience has is they want epics like Chhaava, RRR, and Dhurandhar. This film doesn’t offer that. However, the next one I’m writing is certainly a theatrical. It’s a paranormal story.

Another similarity between Chutney and Saali Mohabbat is plants, as your confidants and even as your weapons of choice. Do you also have a green thumb?

Where should I garden in Mumbai? I’ve grown up in the hills. Trees are a given when you take walks there. When my brother and I would come back from school, we’d be sent to pluck fresh vegetables for salad. It’s so visceral. Every human being relates to plants. The irony that kept occurring to me while writing Saali Mohabbat is, are we eating plants or are they just fattening us and are eventually going to eat us?

Sharat Saxena as a gardener was casting against type. How did you come up with that?

He’s such an old-world charmer. He’s an absolute darling. When I narrated the role to him, he started crying. And because he started crying, I started crying. He said his role is like that of Lord Krishna. I said yes, in many ways, he’s a sarthi and the keeper. That character also needed to have a certain physicality because of some of the work he’s doing in the film.

The third similarity between Chutney and Saali Mohabbat, and even Chhuri, is trouble in marriage. What was the writers room like on this one, since you co-wrote it with your husband Sanjay Chopra?

(Laughs) It was on the brink of divorce because our neighbours thought they’re going to divorce the next morning. It was awful because we both bring very different energies. He’s a lot into action and movement, and I’m more into the inner workings. But eventually, we bring the yin and the yang, and what comes out is pretty solid. We fight to the finish, but also go back to me asking him, “Yo, coming for lunch?” He’s a Captain and used to fly Air India. He was always a fantastic storyteller. You’d imagine being an actor, I’d be better? But I’m not. I’m an accidental storyteller. He’s wonderful at narrating incidents. He’s always had that knack. I’m glad he’s making some money out of it now.

Why do you call yourself an accidental storyteller?

I started writing stories because I wanted to play these roles. I wanted to play Radhika Apte’s role in this one, but when I told Manish, he said, “Don’t take on too much.” He has so much wisdom, so I just agreed. It was easy to detach once the decision was made. Once the idea was abandoned, it was thoroughly abandoned. You can’t be doing disservice to the script. I wouldn’t tolerate. The script is sacrosanct. It’s the gold standard. It’s above any actor or producer. Manish came up with some suggestions. We even narrated it to some A-list actors, but they weren’t in favour of playing such a dark character. And I’m glad because they wouldn’t have worked. What Radhika has done with the role, and what’s come on the screen, is quite lovely.

You started your career as the “wet shirt heroine” opposite Ajay Devgn in Platform (1993). You took a break soon after and returned to films as the mother in Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par (2007). What were you upto all those years in between?

I was very young when I came to Mumbai, and very phased by the city. I came from a very conservative family. For my parents, it was like, “You want to do films? Why?” Because I was a very good student and had topped most of my academics. So my college principal had called my dad, who was my school principal, and said he can write me recommendations so that I can go to an ivy school, and then come back and teach. That seemed like a nightmare. Are these guys crazy? Why would I come back to college? I don’t diss that in any way, but that’s not something that interested me. Also, I wanted to fly the coop and see the world. I was a bit of rebel in that sense.

Tisca Chopra and Aamir Khan in Taare Zameen Par.

By the time I was in second year, I’d started modelling. One thing led to another, and films happened. My first film flopped, and whatever work I had in the wake of that didn’t do too well either. I’d flopped very young, very early, and very solidly. I thought maybe this isn’t the job for me. I’m still young, so I’ll go do something else. At that point, I started dating Sanjay. He suggested since I was serious about acting, why don’t I try theatre. So, I went to Prithvi Theatre and worked with Satyadev Dubey and Feroz Abbas Khan. Then I came back and did TV shows like Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, Astitva…Ek Prem Kahani, and Sarrrkkar: Risshton Ki Ankahi Kahani. I also played the mother in Karishma Kaa Karishma. I got fed up of TV, but I made a bunch of money. So, I travelled to Bali with my sister and lived in an ashram for some time, just to experience life.

In between, I did Star Bestsellers with Irrfan Khan and Tigmanshu Dhulia. Irrfan caught hold of me. “Tujhe pata hi nahi hai tu kya hai! Tu kar, tu kar, tu kar!” He gave me the DVDs of Once Upon A Time in America (1984) and Fargo (1996). I saw the kind of work the world was doing. I liked that. I didn’t like what I was doing. Then I started looking at work differently. Preparation meets opportunity, they called me for Taare Zameen Par. I first thought it was a prank. But I auditioned for it, and here I am.

Shefali Shah also got slotted as a mother after she played one to Akshay Kumar in Vipul Shah’s Waqt: The Race Against Time (2005). How did you avoid that after Taare Zameen Par?

Very consciously and stubbornly. The parts I was offered weren’t great because the idea with Taare Zameen Par was a particular, a specific mother. She was typical of an Indian mom, but a nuanced person. She was looking up the internet for her child. She was trying to do her best. She had her own complexities. She’d given up her job. I had a lot of discussions with Aamir and Amol Gupte about it. Everyone wanted to pick up that character and put it in their film. That doesn’t work for me. It’d be unnatural for a mother in her late 20s to not be a mother. People would ask what the issue is: is she infertile, is it the husband, or is it a choice for career? Actors don’t want to play mothers because it’s very de-sexing. You’re not desirable anymore and become this frumpy being. I played a mother in Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (2011) to Shruti Haasan no less. Then I also played another kind of mother in Rahasya (2015).

Were you surprised then when Raj Mehta approached you to play an object of desire in both Good Newwz (2019) and Jugjugg Jeeyo (2022)?

No, I’m not surprised. I’m constantly happy when people keep offering me a plethora of roles. Now, the big conversation with Raj is, “If you give me another guest appearance, I’m seriously not going to talk to you. Let’s do something substantial.”

Since you played the other woman in Jugjugg Jeeyo, and are an expert on films on infidelity, how did you humanize that character?

It was in the script because she says, “Don’t think you can come back to me. I’m not going to do your rotis. Isliye maine kutta nahi rakha.” I was laughing at that line!