‘ I’m living a schizophrenic life’
Multi- faceted writer Advaita Kala talks about storytelling via varied media and more In our popular culture, modernity in a woman is very often translated as her wearing a miniskirt
“I’m living a schizophrenic life and it works for me,” says Advaita Kala and as she begins narrating to you her journey as a writer, from not having planned to do anything in particular to now doing almost too many things at once, you are inclined to believe her.
“I’ve lived a bit of a nomadic life, travelling to several places, living in different countries, studying at boarding school… there were moments of loneliness along the way and I befriended writing as a way to befriend my surroundings. It was a very personal endeavour to make sense of the world and I never actually had any clear plans for what I wanted as a career. You can check with my parents, they’re probably still in a state of surprise that I’m actually doing something that people are noticing!” she laughs.
The young writer has recently worked on a television show, Airlines for Star Plus and is at present working on two nearlyready film scripts, a novel and an online project about which she is as tight- lipped as she is excited. “Let’s just say that it is top secret at this point, but we should be launching in about two months,” she reveals. Ask her about her experience with exploring such varied forms and media of writing and she says, “I’m a storyteller, and so for me the medium is irrelevant. Whatever I am credited as in a project, what I do is basically the same thing done in different ways. Besides, I have a really short attention span and therefore need to be constantly stimulated, do different things and be challenged to find my own creative voice.”
As a female writer in a largely male- dominated medium, Advaita has been quoted on several occasions especially post the release of Kahaani, the film she is best known for, talking about moving towards more nuanced portrayals of the urban Indian woman, extricating her from a male gaze to let her stand on her own. In comparison to Indian cinema, Indian television has often shown
itself to be even more limited in this context. Was writing Airlines, then, also a way to further a more layered representation of female characters on it? “Yes, it was. The lives women lead today are very complex, and the portrayal of those lives then needs to be complex and nuanced too. This is a very interesting time for the Indian woman, I feel, where she is rediscovering her voice and her space in the modern world, while still retaining traditional values and having to fight a fight. Modernity is not wearing a miniskirt. Somehow in our popular culture it has been conveniently translated to mean that, and this should change,” she concludes.