Her pen, her might

(L-R) Bhumika Sharma and Geetanjali Kulkarni in ‘Razaa’

Good times have been raining on feminist screenwriter Pooja Tolani in the month of June. Fresh off the success of the dark comedy Maa Behen, she hosted the Mumbai screening of her directorial debut, Razaa on June 27. Co-produced by Maa Behen director Suresh Triveni, the short stars Geetanjali Kulkarni and Bhumika Sharma.

Suresh Triveni and Pooja Tolani

An excited Tolani informed mid-day that Razaa premiered at the Short Shorts International Film Festival in Tokyo and has been "making festival rounds since June 2025". "But this is the first time we held a private screening." Even as praise pours in for both projects, Tolani has moved on to new stories. "There's one feature and one series, and both are in nascent stages of development," she said.

Asked whether it is easy to be a feminist writer in the industry, she said, "I feel it depends on who you are working with and what you are working on. Our industry is still trying to figure out how to make women feel comfortable, from basic things like washroom facilities to pay parity. There are [writer] rooms where if you call out something incorrect gender wise, you are sometimes scoffed at, joked about, or told, ‘Baap rey, jhanda gadhne aagayi'. But I have been fairly lucky to have worked with people who are feminists."

On working with Madhuri Dixit-Nene

"I used to joke about this with Suresh that my biggest achievement in life is that I made Madhuri Dixit [centre] say ‘Mujhe pet mein gas ho rahi hai' on screen. I will sleep peacefully now. It was great fun to work with Madhuri, to use her image [of a diva] and also break it."