Producer Kiran Rao has returned to direction after a long gap of 13 years. His film’missing ladies‘Will be in theaters on March 1. Before ‘Missing Ladies’, he had directed his film ‘Dhobi Ghat’. According to Kiran, it took so long to direct her second film because of the upbringing of her son Azad and Paani Foundation, but now she will continue to be active as a director. Highlights of Urmila Kori’s exclusive conversation with Kiran Rao about the film ‘Laapta Ladies’.
Learn about the ‘Missing Ladies’
As the film ‘Laapta Ladies’, directed by Kiran Rao, is getting closer to its release, the excitement about it is also at its peak. Actor Ravi Kishan plays an important role in this film full of humor and suspense. He plays the role of Police Inspector Manohar in the film, who has to solve the case of a missing bride. Actor Aamir Khan had acted in Kiran’s directorial debut ‘Dhobi Ghat’. Aamir wanted to be a part of this film also. He wanted to play the role of Inspector Manohar in this film. He had also auditioned for this, but when he saw Ravi Kishan’s audition tape, he realized that he would not be able to reach the level of acting that Ravi Kishan had done in the character. Kiran said during the trailer launch that Ravi Kishan’s presence adds surprise to the character, while Aamir’s presence will give the audience a foreshadowing of how the character will behave. Manohar’s character has many shades.
This is how the story of ‘Missing Ladies’ reached Kiran
The producer of the film ‘Lapata Ladies’ is Aamir Khan, the director is Kiran Rao and the story is by Biplab Goswami. He presented the story of this film in the Cinestan Screenplay Competition in 2018. He also won the runner-up award. Aamir was involved as a judge in this and he liked this story very much. It was he who told Kiran a line from this story and said that brides change in the train. This one line story appealed to Kiran. Kiran tells that 70 percent of the film is based on Biplab’s story. 30 percent has been added to the script. Sneha Desai added humor to the story. Dayanidhi Sharm has written the dialogues for Ravi Kishan, because the flavor of the North was needed in the dialogues. The character of Chhaya Kadam in the film was my idea.
The film has been shot in real locations and among people
The story of the film ‘Missing Ladies’ is set in 2001. Two brides are exchanged in the train. What happens next is the story of that. In the present times, director Kiran Rao calls this story of 20 years ago as timely. She says that it is a satirical and women-based film. Dowry also raises many issues including the status of women in society in an entertaining manner. The story of the film is real. However, the name of the state in the film has been given as fiction. We have named it Nirmal Pradesh, but the shooting of the film has not been done on the set but on the real location. The film has been shot in Sehore located in Madhya Pradesh. To show the real rural life in the film, the people there have also been included. The film has also been shot in MP and Maharashtra.
Casting of the film was not easy
Nitanshi Goyal, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Srivastava, Chhaya Kadam and Ravi Kishan are in lead roles in the film. According to Kiran Rao, casting was not easy. When we heard the story and when we developed the script completely, we knew that the story itself was so honest, so true, so real that we would need an actor who would fit into it and be able to convey that to the general audience. Just like the characters. Therefore, it was already decided that well-known faces would not be associated with this film. Casting director Romil understood what kind of tone and look we wanted from our actors for this film. He searched television, theatre, social media, everywhere. Several hundred people went through a massive audition process. After that we finalized the actors. Pratibha is from Ranta TV. Sparsh has been a good dancer. He has also worked in Jamtara web series. We tested all the actors together, so that we could understand how they would work together. Then worked on his body language and dialect, on which I also did homework. Actors like Ravi Kishan and Chhaya Kadam were needed in the film.