Chennai production house wins grant for short film focusing on mother-daughter relationship

Produced by Tarana Reddy and directed by Drishya under the aegis of the production house Stray Factory, the film, which stars Kalairani and Gayathrie Shankar, is centred around a woman looking to start an online saree-selling business. “The mother-daughter relationship is not given much screen space at all, and the perspective, for me, isn’t relatable and doesn’t cover the complex relationship we have with our mothers. One of the aspects that are lost in translation is the sacrifices they have made for us to have the futures we have now,” said Drishya, who will make her directorial debut with the film. The grant is on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The film is set to release later this year.

With an all-female crew, the shooting experience was a collaborative and independent one, said Shankar. “This was the first time I’ve worked with a female director. Even when I called Drishya to discuss the script, we ended up talking about our relationships with our mothers, and at the end of the discussion, she said she was pleased with my interpretation of the script. We had the space to try out what we thought the script meant,” said Shankar, who plays the daughter character Kavitha.