INTERVIEW: SHAILJA GUPTA
Shah Rukh Khan Helped with 'Walkaway'
Hoping her about-to-be-released feature film venture will help independent Indian cinema earn a greater stronghold in the global cinematic space, Shailja Gupta is anxiously awaiting the theater lights to dim as the opening credits of Walkaway roll on and after October 29th. A limited release film opening in 18 North American cities this weekend, Walkaway is being hailed as a Sex and the City for South Asian males. With Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chilles Entertainment assisting with the post-production, Walkaway features a dynamic cast of Manu Narayan, Samrat Chakrabarti, Manish Dayal, Sanjeev Jhaveri, Deepti Gupta, Carrie Anne James, Pallavi Sharda, and Ami Sheth.
A debut feature film for Shailja, Walkaway is a lighthearted comedy-drama doubling as a mockumentary. Sketching the lives of four professional men living in New York City, Walkaway chronicles four different lifestyles in attempting to lightly tackle India’s cultural and social obsession in perpetuating the institution of marriage.
In featuring the lives of four men in different stages of their respective lives -- single, dating, engaged, and married -- Shailja attempts to bring to the screen a common struggle of balancing cultural values of the East against the incongruently fast-paced lifestyles of the West.
“The story is based on all real-life people (such as my friends),” Shailja told Buzzine in an exclusive interview, adding how she incorporated aspects from her own romance in crafting a story with potentially universal themes. “When friends are watching the film, everyone has at least one favorite because they can identify with the characters.”
Such relatable characters are Darius, Vinay, Shirdhar, and Soham, each of them attempting to do all they can in keeping their respective lives in perspective despite being pushed beyond the limits of their respective lifestyles, be it single, dating, engaged, or married.
Through it all, each man has been put into a position where they must question the very relationship they have with the opposite sex and, accordingly, whether such a relationship should still continue. The struggle is compounded by the difficulty of balancing East and West values. Simply put, the four couples must decide either for or against respectively walking away from each other.
In the process, they realize they may be hurting more than themselves, as family, close friends, and time-honored cultural values are all suddenly jeopardized.
“It’s about four different men and how each one deals with their respective situations and being away from their country. He is constantly fighting his own inner beliefs and what he is dealing with in the U.S.,” Shailja told Buzzine.
Adding to the complexities of the story, which peeled away at the layers of an Indian culture presumably valuing “arranged” marriages over “love” marriages, is the fact that Walkaway featured a cast of second-generation Indian Americans, all of whom were born and raised in the United States and are relatively detached from the “stricter” social mores of the motherland.
“I was very scared of getting good actors. All of my roles are first-generation Indians,” Shailja told Buzzine about the concerns she had during casting.
Such concerns were apparently quelled once she found her four main characters; however, a greater worry was on the horizon. With filming just about complete right before the spring of 2009, Shailja did not have enough funding to move forward with post-production.
With a whole lot of patient campaigning and a little bit of luck, Shailja was put in touch with Shah Rukh Khan, who offered his Red Chilles Entertainment to assist with post-production, editing, and visual effects.
“As a successful member of our Indian film industry, it is my pleasure to support up-and-coming filmmakers like Shailja,” Khan stated.
Also lending his professional services to Shailja and Walkaway was Oscar-winning sound mixer Resul Pookutty (Slumdog Millionaire), who helped provide the sound design and mixing for the film. “I was impressed by the director’s passion and energy, which has resulted in a fantastic product,” Pookutty stated.
It was a finished product that took about two years to evolve from concept to written product to completed film to distribution and release. Thanks to the help of the likes of Shah Rukh, Pookutty, and Reliance (who helped with the distribution and release), Walkaway is finally ready for audiences.
Walkaway opens on October 29th in limited release, including cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and San Francisco, among others.
