I really like her

It’s what filmmakers Pooja Bhatt and Alankrita Shrivastava will say about each other. Two women who speak their mind, come together for Bombay Begums, a show that looks at the personal and professional price of being a modern woman in India today

Actor Pooja Bhatt and writer-director Alankrita Shrivastava have a lot in common, but before anything else they share the relationship of fan and star. Shrivastava says she watched Bhatt’s super-hit 1991 film with Aamir Khan, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin 21 times. Unapologetically feminist, both women have used cinema to discuss women empowerment. Bhatt has played powerful protagonists in Zakham and Tamanna, and directed Jism and Paap, stories that allowed the female characters to express their sexuality. Never hesitating to speak her mind, Bhatt has in her personal life too, been upfront, whether it was about her relationships or her struggle with alcohol addiction. 

In the last few years, Shrivastava had made a space for herself among the women directors in Bollywood, gaining attention for films such as Turning 30 and Lipstick Under My Burkha. 

With their latest Netflix show, Bombay Begums, they look at women in business. Five female protagonists belonging to the banking sector and corporate world, struggle to make their place. Shrivastava says that while women are successful in banking today, it wasn’t so when her own mother graduated from IIM in the 1970s. “I wanted to try and explore the lives of women who enter the corporate workforce, and the balance that they are expected to strike. They must succeed at the workplace, but they are also expected to be good wives and mothers. I was intrigued by this balance,” she says. The film also explores their relationship with their bodies. 

Alankrita Shrivastava

“Every character is experiencing something physical, too, whether it’s menopause, their first menstruation cycle, struggling with pregnancy or figuring out their sexuality. So, that’s another common thread.” 

Bhatt, who plays Rani, the head of a bank, masks her insecurities by being the boss babe. “I wanted Rani to be someone who is soft on the outside, but a tough nut within. I needed an actor who could add layers to the character. I didn’t meet any actor after I met Pooja, because for me, she was the character.” 

Bhatt, who returns to the screen after featuring in Sadak 2 last year, says, “I think a lot of women will relate to Rani, because of her quirks. However successful women might become, they still like washing their intimate clothing under the basin tap in the bathroom. I relate to her journey as well; she comes with baggage. She was a bank teller, who worked her way up. She was described to me as a woman who exudes power, but also displays vulnerability. So, I identified with her arc.”

Shrivastava, through Bhatt and the rest of the cast, which includes Shahana Goswami and Amruta Subhash, covers a range of issues in the film: gender, #metoo, sexuality, identity, and motherhood. “The film isn’t a moral lesson. But if you can feel the ups and downs the women feel—their defeat, fear, pain, and happiness—I will be glad,” says Shrivastava. 

For Bhatt, 49, it’s encouraging to play a character her own age. “It was a great to be comfortable in my own skin. Members of my hair and make up team are the same as they were back in the day. One of them told me, ‘These days, looks are important. You don’t need collagen, but why not get fillers?’ And she meant it in the best way possible! I told her, ‘Meri jaan, do you realise that because my face wrinkles and shows emotion the way it does, I have been picked by Alankrita! If I looked like Alia [Bhatt], I wouldn’t have landed this role’. I want to tell women, stop trying to be someone you are not.”

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