As she launches Babil Khan in films with Qala, director Anvita Dutt says debutant brings vulnerability and elevates every scene
Qala
After showing promise in her maiden directorial venture Bulbbul (2020), Qala will be a litmus test of sorts for Anvita Dutt. The Netflix film, slated to drop online on December 1, is keenly awaited for another reason as well — it marks the acting debut of Babil Khan, son of the late Irrfan Khan. Casting for the leading man was proving to be an uphill task for Dutt, until she saw Babil’s audition. “The character of Jagan is special. He is pure, unsullied and vulnerable. When Casting Bay showed me Babil’s audition, I noticed he inherently had those qualities. He stepped into Jagan’s shoes like they were meant for him.
Anvita Dutt
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Babil has, what I call, the God particle — that special something you can’t explain in words, but you can sense it every time he is in the frame,” says the director. The hunt for the leading lady was far easier, with Dutt finding her in Tripti Dimri of Bulbbul fame. At its heart, the upcoming musical saga is a story of a mother-daughter relationship. Dutt says the idea has been with her for the past decade. “It started in 2013 with a stray conversation with Vishal Dadlani about the lives of musicians. It coincided with me wanting to tell a story about mothers and daughters. I wrote down a working draft, and shared it with my producer Karnesh Ssharma just before Bulbbul released. Fortunately, he loved the story. The challenge was to tell a compelling story without losing the thread of the repercussions of a faulty upbringing and the damage it may cause.”
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Set in the 1940s, Qala may be far removed from the 19th century drama, Bulbbul. But the two share a common thread — both stories depict the lives of women at the time, viewed from a female gaze. “The story has a female gaze, not only because the protagonist and the storyteller are women, but also because [showing] the inner workings of a daughter’s mind, and the rise and fall of a female singer, requires that gaze.”
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