Next film on two women's liberty in British Bengal

Anuparna Roy has won a major award as director at the Venice Film Festival. She says it's wrong to describe Songs of Forgotten Trees as a story of sisterhood when it's about a romantic relationship between two women who share a flat in Mumbai

- SHARMISTHA GHOSAL

In a world where everyone is moving at a breakneck speed, filmmaker Anuparna Roy lives up to the proverb — slow and steady wins the race. When films are being made within an average span ranging between 15 days and a couple of months, the winner of the Orizzonti Award for best director at Venice Film Festival took more than two years to make her 77-minute-long award-winning film, Songs of Forgotten Trees.

Slowly coming to terms with her post-win, Roy is already endeavoring to make her third film, set against the backdrop of early 20th-century British Bengal, where two women fight for existence and true liberation. Excerpts of a conversation with Roy on her next film, why she sticks by her speech at the recently-concluded Venice Film Festival, and why it miffs her when her award-winning film is being labeled as a tale of sisterhood, when it is not.

How much has life changed after winning an award at the world's oldest film festival?

This is a life-changing event for me. I'm now so optimistic that I will get producers, and I will get to make yet another film. However, the unnecessary controversy over my speech that is trying to overshadow the win is something that is hurting me a little. I couldn't process it initially when my name was announced. I felt, did cinema really win? Did my relentless efforts and labor finally get the recognition it deserved?

You are the fifth Indian and second woman from the country (after Mira Nair) to win at the Venice Film Festival. How does it feel?