Apart from being a prolific actor, Konkona Sensharma is also an acclaimed director, and her work in A Death in the Gunj proved it. Despite being made on a limited scale, the film earned eight awards and critical acclaim. However, the actress initially faced difficulty getting funding from producers. In a chat during the Sit With Hitlist series, the actress recalled how some producers hesitated to fund her film, and even she had doubts about who would watch it.
Konkona on the difficulty in convincing producers
Talking about the film, the actress revealed, “It was actually a true story. I have heard it since childhood, and it deeply fascinated me. The film was set in the 70s, imagining the youth of my parents.”
She also revealed she had no plans to venture into direction. The actor shared, “I had no plans to direct anything. I saw my mother suffering, with no funding, and how difficult things were. But after I had my baby, work did slow down to a certain extent. This story is something that always fascinated me. It just grew in my head. I initially imagined it in three parts, and then the script evolved the way it did.”
She adds, “I developed this thing and wrote it out. While I was working on it, I thought nobody was going to give me money to make this anyway, so I could write whatever I wanted. Then I kept it away, and my mom insisted I approach producers. I did go to certain producers who weren’t interested, and I don’t blame them. They had other concerns. Then Honey Trehan came to me with a script; he used to be a casting director and Vishal Bhardwaj’s assistant. He told me about producing a film by a female director, and I joked with him about funding my film as well. Then he asked me to send the script, but I didn’t take it seriously as I was acting. Then he and Abhishek read the script and told me that they were producing it. Even when we were making the film, I thought nobody was going to watch it, so I could just make what I wanted. It gave me a lot of freedom and liberty.”
About A Death in the Gunj
It is a 2016 Indian English-language drama thriller film written and directed by Konkona Sensharma. The film features an ensemble cast of Vikrant Massey, Tillotama Shome, Om Puri, Tanuja, Gulshan Devaiah, Kalki Koechlin, Jim Sarbh, and Ranvir Shorey.