New Delhi: Anuparna Roy’s Songs of Forgotten Trees won her the Best Director award and a seven-minute standing ovation at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, but it’s her parents who are dealing with the overnight fame of their daughter. They are exhausted giving bytes to the media. But not long ago, they were looking for a groom for Roy while the aspiring filmmaker, heavily influenced by Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, was dreaming of plunging into cinema.
“I have not had time to have a proper conversation at home. My parents are busier than I am — they are giving bytes to everyone. I am just worried that they have forgotten to eat altogether,” the filmmaker told ThePrint over phone.
Roy’s parents, Brahmananda Roy, a retired production manager at Eastern Coalfields Limited, and her mother, Manisha Roy, back in West Bengal’s Kulti are receiving calls about their daughter’s success.
Roy, who hails from Purulia, West Bengal, became the first Indian to receive the Best Director award in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival. Her debut feature, Songs of Forgotten Trees, received a seven-minute standing ovation after being screened. The film has been produced by Bibhanshu Rai, Romil Modi, and Ranjan Singh.
“The win brings a lot of responsibility, so it feels heavy. I am trying to celebrate it in my way,” said 29-year-old Roy, as she returned to Mumbai, where she lives.
Roy’s parents were completely against the idea of her quitting a comfortable job in IT to make a film. But the filmmaker decided to carve her own path, landing in Mumbai and learning filmmaking and scriptwriting.
Roy had no formal training but found support and mentorship from veteran film editor and director Paresh Kamdar, and directors Anirban Maity and Neeraj Sahay.
The unseen
Women and their lives and struggles find centre stage in Roy’s works. The writer-director’s first work was the short film Run to the River (2023), which was set in British Bengal and highlighted the stark reality of poverty — a young girl named Pakhi is married off by her parents to an older man.
“I come from a village where girls are married off early, given rations instead of books in government institutes. My friend Jhuma was married at 13 under a state scheme, then she vanished. Her silence stayed with me. Songs of Forgotten Trees is shaped by such memories about women surviving systems designed to erase them… My film is an attempt to reclaim narrative space for the unseen, the complex, and the quietly resilient,” said Roy in her statement at the film festival.
Songs of Forgotten Trees has two characters — Swetha (Sumi Baghel), a call centre employee, and a sex worker named Thooya (Naaz Sheikh) — who share an apartment in Mumbai and slowly fall for each other.
“We had a workshop where Naaz and I interacted with each other and eventually shot the film. The no-make up look, with dishevelled hair, was something Anuparna wanted, to show how women find comfort with each other and vulnerability,” said Baghel.
The actor recalled how, at the film festival, the audience praised the way the characters looked, and also the crumbling walls of the apartment and interaction of the women, which felt realistic.
“When I read the script, I knew I had to do it because it is a story that needed to be told, and I thought maybe if I do it, it helps other actors to choose such roles and stories too,” said Baghel, who is also a writer.
The story unfolds mostly inside an apartment, as the two women find their way into the world, and also each other’s lives.
“They are unable to express themselves due to patriarchal pressure and yet, there is a sense of liberation despite everything. It’s an open-ended film, where we do not show if the two women finally end up in a relationship,” said Roy.
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About the women
The young director is inspired by the films of Mira Nair, Zoya Akhtar, Kiran Rao, Rima Das, and Payal Kapadia.
“As a young girl in the village, the movies I watched on TV were my inspiration. Without them and their films, I would not be here,” said Roy.
Kapadia’s film All We Imagine As Light, about three women in Mumbai, had won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Kapadia became the first Indian female director to win the award.
“When All We Imagine As Light came out, and I went to watch, my film was being edited, and I was wondering if there are similarities, and even asked a few people. But they are very different from each other — it is two female directors making films about women,” said Roy.
Songs of Forgotten Trees was presented by Anurag Kashyap. “Once I watched Gangs of Wasseypur, I decided I am done living in this village. My father was looking for a groom, and I was thinking of making my film,” Roy said.
She would eventually request Kashyap to watch her film, who agreed and decided to present it too, adding to its visibility.
“If you win, it will bring recognition but also a lot of responsibility, and sometimes you might have to make films even if you are uncomfortable. That is something that has stayed with me,” said Roy.
While she wants to meet her parents, Roy’s schedule is packed. She is set to travel to London for the BFI London Film Festival where her film is competing.
But her mother is waiting to feed her Bengali special mutton. “I stopped eating non-veg, but she is insisting that I should come and she will make me eat it,” said Roy, with a laugh. While she fields multiple interviews, Roy has no idea what her next project would look like.
“I would like to take a vacation by going to my grandmother’s place in Narayanpur to take a break,” she said.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)