Meghna’s failures were hard for her parents
She started her directorial career back in 2002 with Filhaal but filmmaker Meghna Gulzar had to wait till 2015 to taste her first box office success, with Talvar. She says it was not easy for her to deal with the failures but adds that more than her, the failures affected her famous parents, noted lyricist Gulzar and actor Rakhee.
“My earlier films (Filhaal and Just Married in 2007) did not work at the box office. It was, of course, discouraging for me. It was doubly difficult because of my parents. Having parents who have been so successful professionally and they seeing that I am not making it was tough. And also they did not know how they could help me and could not do anything about it. Partly because I wouldn’t let them. It was more difficult for them to be watching all of that going on and frankly, more than my failure, their trouble worried me,” says Meghna.
Back-to-back failures also made her doubt her ability as a filmmaker. “I would have questions of self doubt and wonder whether I should recalibrate my work as to how to make films more successful in terms of box office. I thank God, the audience and the media that I didn’t have to do that. And when I did get the success, it was not at the cost of betraying my sensibilities. I remained true to my sensibilities and my craft,” says the director, whose latest film Raazi has done extremely well at the box office.
Having famous parents often mean that there is lots of pressure. But it wasn’t so in Meghna’s case. “For me, all that mattered was that I had to make them proud,” signs off Meghna.
[My parents] were never the milestone that I had to cross or reach. The only thing was that they were my benchmark for grace, pride and quality of work.
MEGHNA GULZAR
DIRECTOR