Director Aditya Kripalani: When feminism is about equality I am 100 percent a feminist

Aditya Kripalani is an independent filmmaker and author. He has written books like Back Seat, Front Seat, and Tikli and Laxmi Bomb. He made his debut as a director with the film Tikli and Laxmi Bomb which was based on his book. While his directorial debut started streaming on Netflix last year, this year Aditya had one more release on Netflix titled Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal.

Recently, we met Aditya and spoke to him about his movies, his future plans and a lot more. Here are the snippets from our interaction with him…

Your last film was Tikli and Laxmi Bomb and now, it’s Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal. How do you get such unique titles for your movies?

I don’t think about it really, I think it just comes out of the film. My second film (Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal) is about four women who catch a man and try to teach him what the everyday fear of rape in Delhi is. These are words that men use against women. Maybe because I have an advertising brain, so it happens naturally. When you watch a film on Netflix, the actors are not known and you don’t know the filmmaker’s name, so that’s why it has to have something. But it is not conscious. This is the first name that came to my mind.

You were planning to make films on your books Back Seat, Front Seat, and Driver Seat. So, any update on that?

Back Seat has gone on a back seat. Back Seat, Front Seat and Driver Seat are three films that I want to make at some point in life. But I don’t know when. Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal I felt there was this urgency in wanting to tell that story, so I made that. Then my third film Devi Aur Hero is already made. We are making another film called Not Today In January that’s about mental health.

Tell us something about your next film Devi Aur Hero…

We made this film called Devi Aur Hero which is about a therapist and a sex slave. The therapist is male and sex slave is female. We don’t think that devis (goddesses) can be like her and we don’t think heroes will be like him.

You wanted Tikli and Laxmi Bomb to have a theatrical release. But that didn’t happen.

No presenters and distributors.

Did you try to get a theatrical release for Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal?

I have stopped now. I am really happy with Netflix. I have been able to free myself from the things that I don’t want to engage with.

If we see your movies, Tikli and Laxmi Bomb and Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal, we can say that you can understand women quite well. So, are you a feminist?

I am definitely a feminist when feminism is seen as moving towards equality. If feminism is ever about beating up the other gender I am not okay with it. When feminism is about equality I am 100 percent a feminist. It depends on how that person is seeing feminism. I understand women well or not is also a debatable thing as some people feel I do and some people feel I don’t. I think I just understand inequality.

You said earlier that your films don’t have known faces. So, you don’t approach known actors or is it like they reject the roles?

There are times when I have approached known actors because I never want to feel that as someone is famous they should not be considered. But whenever I have approached a known face, I have not been responded. Of late I don’t try. I find dealing with an ego a pain. I am not here to deal with egos; I am here to make films. I feel handling people’s ego is a waste of energy for me.

You are such a good looking personality, so any plans of turning an actor?

I do these random roles in all my films because we are always on the set and I feel there should be one more person sitting there in a particular scene. But that’s not really acting I am just being there in the film. So, I don’t plan to be an actor. But, I love working with good actors. The biggest joy of filmmaking for me is working with good actors.