The Relationship Manager, helmed by director Falguni Thakore focuses on domestic violence and its victims. The short film released on the Large Short Films’ Youtube channel stars Divya Dutta and Anup Soni.
Divya in her interview with The Indian Express opened up about her character experience and why she chose to work on this particular short film.
On choosing The Relationship Manager
This is a subject that really needs to be spoken about as much as possible. We already have so much domestic violence in our society and it has increased since the lockdown. And, half of the women are conditioned to not speak up because of their circumstances or social situations. The whole medium of short films is so strong. You don’t need to preach, you just need to be told in a subtle way that you have the voice.
Her experience of shooting the film at home during the lockdown
This is not exactly my first time shooting from home. I have shot for some advertisements from home. This was different as we had our DOP and director giving instructions from far away. It was very safe and I think it is very well done. The shoot was for a few hours.
Divya’s take on Domestic violence in the upper-class households
People used to think that when you are an intelligent, independent woman who comes from high society, then you will not take domestic violence. But it happens everywhere. In fact, I think it is in these well-to-do households that we don’t even come to know if there is a domestic violence victim. You don’t even get to know what a person is hiding behind their smiles because there are a lot of things at stake sometimes. People are always concerned about the family’s name, the children, and many other things.
You can watch The Relationship Manager here:
On comparison with Tapsee Pannu’s critically acclaimed film “Thappad”
Both films talk about the same issue and are important films. Even if it is a thappad (slap), it is not acceptable. In fact, Taapsee also tweeted about our film and I thanked her for it. It is the same cause. We condition ourselves. We normalize abuse. Breaking that conditioning is tough but it is really important.
Meanwhile, Divya Dutta recently starred Faraz Arif Ansari’s Sheer Khurma alongside Swara Bhasker. The movie focuses on the life of a lesbian couple trying to find their way back to familial bonding.
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