Sonia Chopra

Meghna Gulzar's first film Filhaal didn't exactly rock the box-office, but it did get her noticed. As a filmmaker who wanted to make films her way. The film starring Tabu and Sushmita Sen was widely discussed for its unique subject --- surrogate motherhood, where Sen's character carries the child for her best friend, played by Tabu.

Four years later, Meghna Gulzar is on the threshold of her second film called Just Married and will also be directing a story in Sanjay Gupta's Dus Kahaniyaan. Just Married, as opposed to Filhaal, is based on a less somber topic – that of arranged marriages and what happens after. Over to the writer- director herself...

What's Just Married about?
Just Married is a light and candid look at the first few days between a husband and a wife. In our culture of arranged marriage, strangers are put together and are expected to be familiar and intimate. It's a slice-of-life film, which I think many in the audience will relate to.

You say slice-of-life film. Are these incidents inspired by real stories of friends?
(Laughs) No, not really. The incidents that happen to the young couple in the film are entirely from my imagination.

It took you a while to finish your second film?
Yes. To be honest, I began writing Just Married immediately after Filhaal was released. But it took me all this while just to get things like money and actors in place. These things do take time and I wanted to make sure everything was done properly.

How did you go about the casting?
I was sure I wanted Esha onboard right from the beginning. It was my production company Pritish Nandy Communications that suggested Fardeen. I think Esha and Fardeen make a fabulous pair.

I am sure you are expecting comparisons with the just-released Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd and Hollywood comedy Just Married?
Have not seen Honeymoon Travels, but people should see both the films before making comparisons. As far as Just Married is concerned, I don't think there is any similarity between the two except the title. Also, who ever heard of arranged marriages in the west? My film's premise is based on arranged marriages.

How was the experience making a film the second time around vis-a-vis the first?
Oh, there was a huge difference! I was much more confident. Most people may assume that Just Married was easier to make as it's a lighter film, but it was doubly challenging. Just Married is much larger in scale, and therefore that much more difficult.

While Filhaal focussed essentially on the characters of just the two friends, Just Married has a host of different characters including ten peripherals.

But how much of a growth did you notice in you as a filmmaker?
I did notice a tremendous growth. If there is no growth in a creative person, what is the point? Then the director should stop then making films!

You are one of the few women directors in our industry...
I truly feel that the best thing for women to do is to throw gender out of the window. It's more important to focus on being a humanist rather than a feminist. I am reminded of my being a female director only when someone asks me about it. These differences between men and women are created by the media and it's honestly best to ignore them.

A background of the young writer-director:

Daughter of writer-lyricist and Padma Bhushan award winner Gulzar and yesteryear actress Raakhee, Meghna is fondly called Bosky by family and friends. The name is also an eponym for their home --` Boskiana'.

In 2003, Meghna penned a biography on her father titled "Because He Is...". The book was a 182- page memoir tracing Gulzar's struggling days to his success in Bollywood. She also vividly documented her growing up years with anecdotes and memories.

Known as Daddy's girl, Meghna has no qualms accepting that her father did hold her hand when she was writing her first film, and they even agreed to disagree on which turn the film would take. She ultimately made the film the way she saw it and says that the acid test was when her producer Jhamu Sugandh saw Filhaal and liked it.

Meghna recalls the fondest memory of her childhood as waking up early when her father used to play the sitar and sitting with her head on his knee and going off to sleep listening to the music.

Speaking about her parents, she feels she has inherited her temper and eyes from her mother and creativity from her father. Incidentally, her parents separated when she was barely 11 years old.

Meghna says she is thankful to her parents for the way they handled the divorce, so it didn't affect her that much. She admires her mother Raakhee for single-handedly dealing with and fighting her alcoholism.

Once she decided she wanted to a filmmaker, Meghna began to train herself by making music videos and documentaries. She completed a film production course at New York University and went on to assist her father, Gulzar for Hu Tu Tu and Saaed Mirza for Naseem for hands-on training.

Known to be reclusive, Meghna is openly averse to giving interviews as it makes her uncomfortable and she "hates being scrutinized". She confesses to being moody and says that she is often called a Hitler and tyrant on the sets.

Meghna is now married to Govind Sandhu, an investment banker who she says is her most dependable and honest sounding board for ideas and opinions.