mid-day's 39th anniversary: Chembur ki Ashwiny

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari 38 FilmmakerHyphenated identity is Ashwini Iyer Tiwaris pet peeve Why is a woman always someones someone she rightly asks Filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari and wife Ashwiny as shes often referred to for instance Rather than Ashwiny hit director of Bareilly Ki Barfi 2017 and the critically acclaimed Nil Battey Sannata 2016 sitting on a twofilm deal with Ekta Kapoors studio whose next is a comedydrama with Alia BhattThis could also be because she and her husband both former advertising professionals burst into the mainstream moviescene almost simultaneously mdash Nitesh Chillar Party 2011 and Bhootnath 2008 picked up a best director Filmfare for Indias biggest blockbuster Dangal 2016 the same year that Ashwiny bagged the black lady as best debutant director for Nil Battey SannataTheyre also working partners mdash hes a quintessential writer she has an arts background its a team That said they go about filmmaking like surgeons You can discuss surgery forever But you have to perform it on your ownThey first met at Ghetto the legendary restobar at Mahalaxmi This warms our hearts already He was with Lowe She worked with Leo Burnett the agency she had joined right after her commercialarts degree from Sophia Polytechnic and where she remained for a decade mdash until turning 30 By then most of the worlds workforce is deep into a monthly addiction stronger than heroin mdash the phones beep announcing the salarydepositInstead Ashwiny picked up her savings gratuity provident fund to go freelance and write her first film She couldnt afford this luxury earlier as an only child growing up in Mulund with middleclass parents both of them teachers mother a school principal father a professor in plantpathology I once told them I wanted to be a painter They said thats for business people to pursue Job security was paramountWhat changed her life A 45second promo on the girlchild for Kaun Banega Crorepati that she worked on for her client Sony Television The films tagline was Badhai ho ladki hui hai It was extremely powerful I thought if a promo can do this imagine the impact a feature on the subject could haveShe wrote Nil Battey Sannata about the motherdaughter relationship having only recently turned mom of twins a boy and girl herself To test her skills as director she attempted a short film Whats For Breakfast Mom that picked up a National Award no less At Delhi airport returning from Nil Batteys tiring shoot she chanced upon Nicolas Barreaus novel The Ingredients Of Love and simply couldnt put it down That led to Bareilly Ki BarfiThe secret to her backtoback success though is possibly her grounding in advertising It teaches you to balance the left and right brain creativity and commerce mdash the client in films being the producer who puts in the moneyAlso she keeps safe distance from Bollywoods hustle to remain creatively sane Much before a hundred people join the process and you reach millions eventually filmmaking to start with is a lonesome exerciseThis explains her lovely bungalow in a leafy quiet gated colony close to RK Studio in the central suburb where Raj Kapoor cemented his career in the 50s while the rest of the film industry grew northwestwards mdash almost kissing Ahmedabad now Which isnt to say Ashwini doesnt encounter that quizzical look from filmies over where she lives Chembur Yup