The fingers stay crossed for Kiran Rao

First-time director Kiran Rao is nervous and ecstatic, at the same time. Her debut film, Dhobi Ghat, so far, has only been screened in a few international festivals.

But judging by feedback, Rao is delighted by the way the international audience has accepted the film and has fingers crossed for the same results in India.

“My friends who’ve seen the film love it; I guess they are just biased. But I am satisfied with the way things have turned out. The usual worries are inevitable but things have gone according to plan and I don’t think we’ve faced any untoward situation. However, I am nervous and don’t quite know how to react to all the excitement,” she says.

A script that sat in her drawer for nearly two years, Kiran says that she was relieved to be able to connect with the screenplay even after that long a time.

“I wrote Dhobi Ghat in the spring of 2005 and after a few changes it was sitting still till 2007. In between, I’d gotten busy as a producer. When I went back to the story, I could still relate to it. That’s when I knew that I had to make the film,” says Kiran. And that’s how, Dhobi Ghat, a film that’s set in Mumbai, came to be.

“Any big city, offers the opportunity to discover many of its stories. There are always multiple layers that one can peel off its walls and Dhobi Ghat treads the path that deals with various aspects of the society. However, I wasn’t really thinking of anything specific when I was writing it,” Kiran says, adding, “I hope some of my sensibilities reflect in the film. I have the need to scratch the surface to reveal what’s below and I can show something without being obvious about it.”