Actress Tisca Chopra has stepped behind the camera for her feature directorial debut, Saali Mohabbat, a film she also co-wrote with her husband, Sanjay Chopra. In a candid conversation, she humorously revealed that their intense writing sessions led their neighbours to believe the couple was headed for a divorce every single day.
From Short Films to Feature: The Journey of a Storyteller
While Saali Mohabbat marks her first full-length directorial venture, Tisca is no stranger to filmmaking. She previously directed the 2020 short film Rubaru and was deeply involved in creating and acting in acclaimed shorts like Chutney (2016) and Chhuri (2017). She credits these experiences as crucial training grounds.
"With Chutney, we made a very deliberate attempt to shoot it like a feature," Tisca recalled, highlighting how they used drones and collaborated with cinematographer Jay Oza. She believes the visceral connection audiences felt with Chutney gave her the confidence to pursue screenwriting as a "game you play with the audience."
However, she admits directing a feature film is a "completely different animal," involving mind-numbing questions from the crew on everything from lamp height to car number plate fonts. Her mantra was to keep the camera work simple, focusing on the emotionally complex tale rather than visually complex shots, because "the story is the star."
The Spiritual Sequel to Chutney and Casting Coup
Saali Mohabbat, streaming on ZEE5 and backed by Manish Malhotra’s Stage 5 Productions, stars Radhika Apte and Divyenndu. Tisca describes it as a spiritual sequel to Chutney, exploring the inner lives of seemingly harmless women. The film revolves around a homemaker and plant lover who discovers her husband is cheating on her sister.
The casting brought a delightful surprise with filmmaker Anurag Kashyap playing a cop named Gajju bhaiya. Kashyap, a dear friend, had initially loved the script, calling it "India’s Parasite." He stepped in at the last moment when the original actor met with an accident, flying in from Australia just days before the shoot.
Another interesting casting choice was veteran actor Sharat Saxena as a gardener, a role Tisca says moved him to tears during narration. She saw the character as a modern-day Lord Krishna – a guide and keeper.
The Tumultuous Writers' Room: A Marriage Tested
One of the most revealing parts of the process was co-writing the infidelity-themed script with her husband, Sanjay Chopra, a former Air India captain. Tisca joked about the dynamic, saying their creative clashes were so fierce that "our neighbours thought they’re going to divorce the next morning."
"It was awful because we both bring very different energies," she explained. "He’s a lot into action and movement, and I’m more into the inner workings. But eventually, we bring the yin and the yang, and what comes out is pretty solid." She praised Sanjay as a natural storyteller, while calling herself an "accidental storyteller" who began writing to create better roles for herself.
Navigating a Career: From Early Flop to Reinvention
Tisca also reflected on her unconventional career path. She started as a lead actress opposite Ajay Devgn in Platform (1993) but faced early setbacks. "I’d flopped very young, very early, and very solidly," she said. This led her to theatre, television, and even a stint living in an ashram in Bali.
Her career was revitalised by the late Irrfan Khan, who urged her to recognise her potential and introduced her to world cinema. The turning point came with Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par (2007), where her nuanced portrayal of a mother could have typecast her. She consciously avoided similar mother roles unless they were complex, like in Rahasya (2015).
She broke the mould again by playing a glamorous, desirable character in Raj Mehta's Good Newwz (2019) and Jugjugg Jeeyo (2022), where she humanised the 'other woman' role. Looking ahead, Tisca's next project as a writer is a paranormal story designed for the big screen, marking her continued evolution as a multifaceted artist in the Indian film industry.
