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Filmmaker Rima Das turns to writing amid lockdown: Mujhe toh apna signature karna bhi nahi pasand hai, par ab main likh rahi hoon
Rima Das of Village Rockstars and Bulbul Can Sing fame is in Mumbai amid the lockdown.
For National Award-winning director Rima Das, the Covid-19 crisis-led lockdown meant she couldn’t go back to her family home in Assam and was stuck in Mumbai alone. And for someone like Das, who is used to having people around her, it was not easy for her to calm her moody, lazy, self and gather strength.
“I decided to accept the situation and follow a self-disciplined lifestyle to begin with. While I enjoyed cooking, I’d do it whenever I felt like. Now I’m cooking every day. It relaxes me,” says the director, who is happy that people are enjoying watching her films Village Rockstars (2017) and Bulbul Can Sing (2018) online, and messaging their response to her.
Das, who doesn’t quite enjoy writing, has in fact started doing it. “It’s really funny. Forget writing, mujhe toh apna signature karna bhi nahi pasand hai (laughs softly). I never thought I’d be writing so much someday. I’m not writing on my computer or iPad, but on papers. Every day when I sit down to write, I turn to the first page to check how I started it,” adds Das, who last self-wrote Man with the Binoculars, which was her first film.The film she’s writing now will be a new project, but before working on it, she would start work on another directorial, which stars Tillotama Shome.
The filmmaker also has a few musical instruments, and is self-learning how to play them. “I bought two musical instruments the last time I went to Berlin and then I got a few more instruments from Goa. There’s an ektara, a flute etc... I’ve also been watching movies, reading, meditating and enjoying the beauty of nature… ghar se jitna aakash aur jitne panchhi dikhte hai, achha lagta hai,” says Das, who’s in touch with her family constantly over video calls because “they too are missing” her.
She has also been spreading awareness and has donated to funds and NGOs in Assam. Though social media shy, she’s thinking of doing a question-and-answer session online soon. “We’re starting an NGO. We will raise funds for those in need by organising various creative competitions like poetry writing, painting, photography etc that people are indulging in while in quarantine,” she says.
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