In the two series released in the past two weeks—Lust Stories 3 and Hunkkaar—the credit list mentions Ashi Dua as the producer. An encounter with Anurag Kashyap made Ashi, who once dreamed of being a journalist, get into production. Her journey began with working on Anurag’s 2009 film Dev D. Over the years she worked on many films, backing more and more anthologies like Bombay Talkies (2015), Lust Stories (2018), Ghost Stories (2020), Paava Kadhaigal (2020), Pitta Kathalu (2021) and Ankahi Kahaniya (2021), among others.
In an informative conversation, we spoke to Ashi about how she decides on the sets of filmmakers which will be part of an anthology, how she protects the director’s vision amid pressure of numbers, how Hindi actors behave differently on a south set and if the industry learns anything from the success of a Hanuman Ansh.
Excerpts:
Lust Stories 3 is your eighth outing when it comes to anthologies. There have been two more of those, and also Ghost Stories (2020), Paava Kadhaigal (2020), Pitta Kathalu (2021), Ankahi Kahaniya (2021) all leading back to Bombay Talkies (2015). What keeps pulling you back to this format of storytelling?
Bombay Talkies happened because I wanted to do something to celebrate 100 years of cinema. Post that, the four filmmakers we worked with on the anthology—Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, and Karan Johar—they all were like "let’s do another," hence Lust Stories happened. The latter did well for Netflix and because of that I got an opportunity to do Pitta Kathalu and Paava Kadhaigal as well.
It started off with this great opportunity to work with marquee directors. I loved the diversity. Everybody had a different aesthetic but what we were trying to do was aligning them towards one vision. That was exciting. Having said that, I think I am quite done with anthologies and I want to move on to doing other stuff (laughs).
Indian society, in general, is quite conservative. Bollywood too as an industry is mostly known for its love stories. Lust is a subject which is quite taboo. I was just wondering, back in 2020 when you came up with the idea of Lust Stories were there any reservations about how viewers are going to perceive it?
I believe everything actually begins with lust. It is not love but lust at first sight. And if you have seen the films in the anthology, you will understand that our motive was never to titillate the audience. We wanted to explore desire in the most realistic and authentic way there is. We knew that people might not talk about it but they do understand lust. The anthology was just a way to help them identify and articulate that feeling.
How do you decide upon which sets of directors will lead an anthology?
We mostly try to go with directors whose aesthetics match our vision. Like when it comes to Lust Stories, we don’t want to show lust for the sake of it. We want to be able to say something through these stories. We also see the body of work of these filmmakers and also base it on what kind of people they are and how sensitive they will be to a subject like that.
You work with filmmakers who have distinct styles and a particular artistic vision. At a time when OTT platforms are so concerned with viewership metrics, how do you ensure each director’s vision is not compromised?
Frankly, at the end of the day, it is a business. It has to work for whoever is at the top, be it the platform, the producer or the distributor. The business works when math and content come together. For example, I can’t back a subject with a really small audience at a really high budget. Script is still key. If the script works and the math works, the producers or the platforms will bite into it. But if the script works and the math doesn't, they won’t. But there are always exceptions, like we recently saw with Hanuman Ansh.
In your producer’s opinion, do you think the industry learns anything about conviction with the success of a film like Hanuman Ansh?
Honestly? No. They won't learn. They will say things like, "this was a fluke, a one-off. It worked because it is faith and religion-based."
How do you look at Malayalam cinema? They are also scoring big numbers on tight budgets…
It is so collaborative there. The funny thing is that Hindi actors when they work there, they automatically become more cooperative and collaborative. They won’t ask for the ten things they would otherwise seek in a Hindi project. Same goes for the Malayalam actors. They aren’t that cooperative on a Hindi film. I think it’s a cultural thing.
What should be the cultural changes in the Hindi film industry?
The first should be collective support. Everybody should come together and set some ground rules for things like how the crew should be taken care of on the set, entourage costs and everything. It should not be like if one producer says no to an actor’s unnecessary demands, the other gives in to them. Also this thing of herd mentality, like one thing works and everybody just rushes to make more of that. It’s a long journey, I know. I hope we reach there someday.
