Bad Girl is a simple story of self-discovery, says debutante Tamil filmmaker Varsha Bharath

CHENNAI: Ahead of the teaser launch of Bad Girl on Sunday, debutant filmmaker Varsha Bharath, an erstwhile assistant to Vetrimaaran opens up on the film that stars actor-singer Anjali Sivaraman in the lead role. The film has been appreciated by the industry insiders, even when the film was being shot a few months ago in the outskirts of Chennai. “Bad Girl is a coming-of-age story. It is about a girl, who we see through her teens, her adolescence, her heartbreaks, her relationship with her mother and her relationship with herself because girls sometimes hate themselves a lot. It is about acceptance and how a girl from a conservative society finds her own answers for several questions she asks herself. I would sum it up as a simple story on self-discovery,” Varsha told DT Next.

Varsha’s team of women were able to relate to the dialogues and the characters immediately. “The story I wouldn’t say has references only from my life. When we were shooting for it, the make-up artists on location told me they could relate to it. My team has a lot of women technicians and they all could see themselves in the role that was being portrayed in front of the camera. They were giggling and were telling me that they haven’t seen something like this on screen before. We all grew up watching commercial entertainers on television. But deep down, we realise that the female characters we have seen on screen haven’t really portrayed us. Bad Girl would fill that void. When I started my journey as a filmmaker, I realised that I should make a chick flick. Whenever we needed to watch one, we only had foreign films. Why not make a film with our woman in the lead where things are more relatable and in a sensibility that our audience would connect to,” she added.

Vetrimaaran came forward to produce the film and Anurag Kashyap joined the film in later stages. “I worked with Vetrimaaran in Visaaranai and Vada Chennai. But he used to call me for story discussions and I pitched my ideas to him as well. When I told him about Bad Girl, he said this will be taken forward as a project, and here we are. Anurag Kashyap sir too liked it. I am glad to have sensible filmmakers, who have been guiding the film and the process. We have told a story with the hopes of people coming to the theatres. We have good content on hand and content-driven films are always interesting. We haven’t made a story thinking what could be its selling point. I know people who go to films knowing that they won’t be worth the time, and still spending money on parking and popcorn. I am sure, once we put out a few glimpses from Bad Girl, the audience could relate to the content and watch it in theatres,” remarks Varsha.