Rashmika Mandanna’s upcoming film, The Girlfriend, is about an introverted young girl struggling with a tumultuous relationship. While it might be set in contemporary times, the origin of the story goes back nearly 25 years. Filmmaker Rahul Ravindran, who has also penned the script, recalls a certain incident that took place during his college days. “That small incident is there in the film, though completely changed and dramatised,” shares Rahul. And this core memory was unlocked when a song about a broken-hearted lover became a nationwide sensation. “That song was symptomatic of a movement in cinema that consistently glorified certain themes. I remember telling myself, ‘I want to make a movie where you see the same kind of song but the lens is different, where I can hopefully make the audience feel something different rather than whistle and clap.’ These two memories came together and created the germ of the story — Bhooma’s (Rashmika) character came much later,” reflects Rahul.
Refusing to label this as a one-person story, Rahul elaborates, “It’s a two-person relationship drama, and it’s as much about the boy as it is about the girl. What’s probably rare is that we don’t get these stories from a girl’s point of view. That plays to our advantage.”
The Girlfriend seems like a film that’s psychologically driven, capturing drama that is more internal than external. The emotional weight of such narratives often runs the risk of being too subtle for mainstream approval. However, an unperturbed Rahul says, “The psychological element is two layers underneath. A lot of thought has gone into the screenplay and character arcs, and once that is figured out, the big challenge is taken care of. In The Girlfriend, the first half has those undercurrents, but the second half is dramatic, intense, and pretty straightforward.”
Among other challenges for Rahul was to find an actor who has expressive eyes, which has been a prerequisite for all his films. “When I am writing a script, I don’t think of a face or a particular actor — it’s the eyes. When I was writing Anjali (Ruhani Sharma) in Chi La Sow, I knew I needed someone who has a certain melancholy in their eyes, even when they smile,” says Rahul. Similarly, for Bhooma in The Girlfriend, Rahul needed an actor who could speak volumes without dialogue. “Bhooma doesn’t know how to express herself because of the way she was raised. The idea was to find someone who has transparent eyes. When I met Rashmika before the shoot, I realised she can’t hide her mood. I affectionately call her ‘headlight eyes’ because she has such expressive, transparent eyes. Half my job was done there.”
Rahul acknowledges the risks involved in making an off-beat film lead by a female star, and attributes it to the system that doesn’t have enough female superstars to begin with. The filmmaker elaborates, “Not all stories can be made on a tight budget. For those films with bigger budget needs, you need an actor who can safeguard the money to a large extent with pre-release business. For that, you need choices. In Telugu, we’ve had only two big female stars in recent times — Anushka Shetty and Samantha Ruth Prabhu — who can only do so many films. What happens, then, is that you have scripts lying around, not getting made, and hence no more stars are being created. It’s a vicious cycle, and we need one outlier that breaks through and does well. That process takes a long time.” Rahul also praises Allu Aravind for taking a bet on The Girlfriend for the same reasons. “You need a big producer to take this gamble, because a small producer can’t. It’s amazing that Allu Aravind garu decided to present this. Very soon, we will have one more name added to the short list of Samantha and Anushka gaaru. Of course, three names are not enough... it needs to become 10, for more such films to come.”
Pointing out the reasons behind the lack of female superstars, Rahul says, “For most Indian women, stepping out of their doors and having a career began in the late 80s. It picked up in the 90s, and is much better now, and not just confined to urban areas. Because of how late it was that women began stepping out of their houses to pursue careers, and their coming prominently into cinema has taken that much more time. Until a few decades ago, it was largely seen as a male bastion. Today, we are seeing so many women in cinema as technicians and filmmakers. For us to have as many female directors as male ones, we should reach that point in the next 5-10 years.”
But it’s not just about creating an ecosystem with more female stars and filmmakers on the ground. The eventual goal is to have more stories about women, told by women themselves. He reflects, “The other side of the equation is that most of the so-called ‘women-centric films’ today are made by men. We need more women coming through so they can start telling their own stories. If we get enough so-called women-centric films, they will hopefully stop calling them that. It will be just another film, and I hope we get to that stage soon. ” It all boils down to the essence of a well-functioning society where everyone should get to tell their own stories. Rahul notes, “There is immense value in people from all segments telling their own stories. I am not just talking about gender here; it also includes caste, creed, and religion. That authenticity opens our minds about what it is like to live in the same world as others; it helps us understand each other better.”
Rahul completely believes that films can bring that change in everyone. And yet, he is pragmatic enough to see the other side. “We can resonate with some movies on a personal level, but all of cinema put together and the kind of stories we collectively choose to tell as an industry can have a massive effect on our psyche. And yet, it is easier to get negatively affected by cinema than positively. It affects young people when they are at an impressionable age. I am not saying cinema is the only factor, but it’s one of the factors,” he concludes.
Rahul talks about his own relationship with films and literature that have taught him to be kinder, he notes. He says, “My goal is to keep evolving. I still see many flaws in myself, but I know I am a better human being today than 20 years ago. When you watch films and read books from different perspectives, it teaches you empathy, and nothing can make you a better person than empathy.” The Girlfriend filmmaker mentions Pedro Almadovar’s All About My Mother (1999) as one such film that influenced him the most. He recalls, “It made me take a step back and ask myself why I am so quick to judge and have such prejudices. I began questioning everything about myself.” He also mentions Shiva and Nayakan as major cinematic influences. “They made me go, ‘oh, there must be a director behind this; that’s why they feel so different.’ I got fascinated. Since then, I wanted to be a filmmaker."
