'Hope & A Little Sugar' will bring an upswing in my career. – Tanuja Chandra

She receives critical acclaim for her work ( Dushman, Sangarsh, Sur) but a blockbuster hit still allures her. But that has never dampened her spirit to make cinema with purpose. Her latest offering ‘Hope & A Little Sugar’ is her first crossover film based on relationships with 9/11 as its backdrop. The film gave her first proud experience at the film festivals were it was appreciated for its global theme told in a simple sweet tone that touches the heart. Confident by the festival response, the writer director hopes the film will finally give her the taste of sweet box – office success.

Tanuja Chandra shares the experience of her first crossover film & the first journey of the film to festival circuit & the hope associated with ‘Hope & A Little Sugar’ to Vishal Verma.

Q: After the festival acclaim, you first crossover film ‘Hope and little Sugar’ is releasing in India how it feels.
A: Its like every release, some tension, nervousness & excitement as well. Thankfully, the response at the film festivals had been very good. I am now confident in inviting people to see my film as it touches your heart in a simple way. It’s not overly commercial or heavy in that sense. Its simple story told in a simple way which touches your heart.

Q: In your opinion how will it improve your counting at the box-office? Your previous films though got rave reviews from critics didn’t result in the box-office success as it should have been?
A: It’s not made keeping a block buster in mind. It’s an ambitious film story wise but I will like to add that it is being made keeping the concerning audience in mind. It’s designed for multiplex and global audience.
Being in English it does reduce the Hindi audience but whatever is reduced in India gets covered up by the international audience worldwide were non Indians would see the film.

My previous films ‘Dushman’  ‘ Sangarsh’ were not failures, they did well. Even ‘Sur’ was a success in the DVD sector and many people had seen it on T.V.

So in that sense I will call ‘Sur’ a success though it wasn’t successful in its release in theatre. Having said that I believe ‘Hope and a Liitle Sugar’ will find its niche amongst the audience in general and will bring an upswing in my career.

Q: What were the reasons that your previous films had failed to attract the required audience in theatres even after critical acclaim?
A: If I would have known the answer to that then I would be making only hits. Script and promotion both play a vital part. Everybody writes the script keeping success in mind nobody wants it to be a failure. The script should not be messed up as the writer writes it with a focus & a vision.

The script of my last film ‘Zindagi Rocks’ was altered according to the producer in order to keep the commercial elements & secondly the promotion, in this noisy world you have to stand out and convey properly what your film tries to show otherwise people will not step out to watch your film.

Q: How did you first cross over film happened?
A: Two Indian distributors living in New York approached me by net. They liked my film ‘Sur’ and asked me to make an English film. I agreed for the total new adventure. 
But it wasn’t pleasant at all in the beginning. They suddenly pulled out of the project & I was taken aback by their lack of conviction. Some of the asking price from actors did not go according to the figures they had in mind, they got shaky. I was angry, because I had actors in place, had technicians raring to go, but suddenly I had stopped dead in my tracks because of confusion in the minds of a couple wannabe producers!

I stumbled upon the producers I finally got. Two liberal, independent film makers, living in New York Mr. Glenn Russow along with his partner, Scott Pardo, contacted me at a time when I had pitched the film to many producers in Bollywood and had been turned down many times. I got this email from them seeking my permission to raise funds to produce this film in New York! HUH?!! My heart did a cartwheel! These were guys that my former producers had contracted to doctor the screenplay, check for factual errors, see if there was anything Americans would be offended by – the story being about Sept 11th, 2001 after all They had loved the script and having heard that the project was as of now a fatherless child, they wanted to adopt it! Whooey!!! My mother and I did a little jig to celebrate.  

Collaborating with Americans, and working with a crew from there, shooting the film wasn’t easy considering the weather but we made sure that it doesn’t hamper our plans. In a significant measure, the film was edited online and cross-culturally as well And now that most exciting, thrilling, time is here. The All-India release! WEG-India, a distribution company based in Mumbai, is opening Hope and a Little Sugar theatrically on 18th of April after acquiring its rights at the American Film Market in Cannes.

The U.S. distribution rights are with the acclaimed company, Cinemavault, and the other major territories will see the release later this year. I am glad India is the first place for the film to open.

Q: You have been associated with the Bhatt camp for quite some time but only this time you got a chance to work with Anupam Kher, how was the experience?
A: I did not cast him earlier cause I didn’t had great role to offer which had a complete graph for the character. He is really amazing & he still has the first timer attitude in him. It was so wonderful to work with him.

Q: How did you zeroed in on Mahima for the demanding role?
A: Casting for the film was like a long journey. Earlier Urmila was ready to do but she backed off due to date issues. Same was the case with other actresses who showed interest. The producers wanted a global face & I have had worked with Mahima before in ‘Film Star’ and found her to be a wonderful person and an actress. It’s a comeback film for Mahima. She has done wonderfully well.

Q: How was your first festival experience?
A: It was first festival experience as a filmmaker. I was lucky to meet different people & show my film to them. We have had a very successful run in festivals all over the world, in Milan, Goa, Karachi, Florida, London and New York, and the film has won two Best Feature Film awards. This made me content to see a film made with Indian actors in English language deals with global sensibilities was able to touch the heart of the world audience.

Q: But suppose unfortunately, if still it doesn’t work at the box-office then what will you do cry out or make a ‘welcome’ type comedy which seems to be the trend nowadays?
A: I would certainly like to do a comedy but definitely not those ‘welcome’ types cause its very tough to make & I may fail miserably. It’s hard to make anyone laugh but I will wait till the day I graduate myself to that level & then try something in the lines of ‘Hrishikesh Mukherjee’.
Right now for some time I will stick to dramas.

Q: So what next?
It’s a period love story a very intense love story. Penned by my mom Kamna Chandra who had earlier written Prem Rog, 1942 – A Love Story, Kareeb etc. The scripting is over and hopefully the production activities may commence from May.

Q: Finally, writing or directing which is more challenging?
Directing is simpler.  Managing and putting things together.
I do write articles in newspapers, magazines.  I also tried to write fiction once but gave up as it requires explaining the consciousness of a person, what is going inside him, his feelings, thinking.

In Cinema however we doesn’t necessarily try to do that. Writing is a totally different genre and much more challenging, I will try once I have hundreds of fiction pages in my mind to scribble on paper. I Hope.