When life as a working mom with twins gets seriously tough, Gurinder Chadha just thinks of Farah Khan, who has triplets and Nargis' struggle in Mother India! The filmmaker, whose It's A Wonderful Afterlife releases today, talks about making her very first film as a mother:
When life as a working mom with twins gets seriously tough, Gurinder Chadha just thinks of Farah Khan, who has triplets and Nargis' struggle in Mother India! The filmmaker, whose It's A Wonderful Afterlife releases today, talks about making her very first film as a mother:
WHO: Gurinder Chadha with her twins, Ronak and Kumiko
WHAT: Talking about her first film as a mum
Story so faru00a0
Oh it's a fun film about the afterlife. You know, when I became a mother I was overjoyed. But for some reason, I have also been quite preoccupied with death since then. Like, I am obsessed with thoughts of what will happen to them if I die or whether I'll be alive to see them with families and so on. And the film has been inspired from that kind of feeling and the heroine is a 50 year old mother, which is unheard of!u00a0
What balance
The real thing is to constantly balance my schedule with the children's. I don't know how Farah manages. Our work is so intense and hands-on and without any set routine that it is difficult to juggle it right. I took up this film because it was easy to manage and I was in full control of my schedule where I could make sure that I could at least spend the evenings with the kids. I don't know whether I could have made the film if it was a bigger production and shot in a foreign location where I wasn't in control. I love what I do and so I try that much harder to adjust it with my motherly duties. I also involve my kids in my films wherever I can. They're part of a garden scene and a wedding party scene in the film where I needed some babies.
Go baby go
However, I have also learnt that children are naturally adaptable and the sooner you acclimatise them to your work, the more sociable they become. As long as they have a set routine for meals and bedtime, they love all that exposure to different environments. My kids are so used to my pace that they feel it's normal to have your mom appear on TV or in the newspapers. They don't get impressed about it or anything. Soon I'm hoping to make a children's film set in Kerala. Children these days are growing up so fast; they're very adult and knowing. I want to make an fun innocent adventure film.u00a0u00a0
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