Baby Tigress

Ever since her debut, Zoya Akhtar has been described as a tasteful, cerebral and urban film-maker. A darling of the industry, her films, though offbeat, have always found love and support. With Gully Boy, she has delivered a film that shocked Bollywood with her gumption, backing it up with a web series debut, and her own production house, Tiger Baby.

- Jigar Shah

Chanting ‘Apna Time Aayega’ is how I kept my hopes alive, every time I thought I had nailed an appointment with Zoya Akhtar, but thanks to her busy schedule, the interview kept getting delayed. And it was only when I was sitting in front of her, in her office, did I actually feel that ‘Mera time aa gaya’. Zoya breaks into a big smile on hearing this.

In the past one month, the director has been busy as a bee. She was premiering her latest film, Gully Boy at Berlin Film Festival, she also had to prepare the film for its’ Hindi release, and on top of that, she now has a web show dropping this month on Amazon Prime. And all of this is happening under her own production company, Tiger Baby, which she started a couple of years ago with her long-time collaborator, Reema Kagti. As we start chatting about all the work she and her team have been doing for the last few years, she looks relieved that her film has done well and also brought box-office collection in big numbers.

Talking about the figures coming in, and if she is interested in how the audience reacts to her films she says, “After my first film, Luck By Chance, numbers began to interest me (smiles). It is true that till then you don't really think about them as you are so busy wanting to make the film. After you make the film you get into the business of it. I believe only the trade guys have to be interested in the numbers. Nobody else should be interested in the numbers except the business people. I’m very happy with the film doing really well. I want as many people to watch it as possible.”