Kiran Rao: Up close and personal
This article was originally published in Platform magazine’s May-Oct 2024 issue. Cover photograph by Karan Kumar Sachdev.
Kiran Rao’s creative lab—or studio—is situated in a subtle and unassuming apartment building in Mumbai’s coastal suburb, Bandra. When you enter the apartment complex that is marked by a sprawl of leafy trees, steadily tread up a flight of stairs and arrive on the first floor, there is nothing to suggest that within this almost sixty-year-old building, is an office that belongs to a truly gifted filmmaker.
On a summer afternoon, Rao greets us in a white lace Péro dress. Her striking curls have been left unbound; her golden-rimmed glasses are perched high on her nose and her effervescent warmth is contagious. The three-room studio, populated by an eclectic mix of furniture, holds ample natural light. Its etched vintage glass windows with wooden frames, and in-situ beige and grey terrazzo flooring, lend a quiet, old-world charm. When she first arrived here, the windowpanes were covered in white paint, she informs. She took time to manually scrape the paint off, which eventually revealed solid, beautiful teak underneath.
A folding glass-panelled door opens into the adjoining balcony that is bordered green by home-reared potted plants. It overlooks a flourish of fishtail palms, jackfruit, mango and imlie trees that stretch tall towards a powder blue sky—filled with birdsong. The balcony is Rao’s favourite spot. It’s where she spends most of her days (weather permitting), plopped comfortably on a mustard-hued cushioned bench, poring over screen- plays, sipping coffee, and deliberating the next big creative endeavour to unleash into the world. The L-shaped bench, of course, is one-of-a-kind. Its base is a solid stone slab that once belonged to an old kitchen counter. It was dutifully salvaged by Rao. Turns out, she’s a crusader for all things repurposed.
There are many things we don’t know about Rao: that is, pertaining to the interiority of her life beyond films. Such as, she possesses a fascination for robots, has an instinctual knack for designing things, or that her love for music supersedes her love for films. For that reason alone, one can quickly, although mistakenly, peg her to be reticent.
Left to Right: Rao is a Star Wars fan and sheepishly admits to having sported a R2-D2 pendant for a considerable period; A pair of small-sized slippers, fashioned from cardboard. It was made by her son when he was five or six years old; The studio also has a pair of circular, slate-grey lights designed by Rao, that were carved from thick cement tiles and assembled using wood and LEDs. Photographs by Karan Kumar Sachdev.
Thirteen years ago, she wrote, directed and produced her debut feature film Dhobi Ghat, which won her immense critical respect. Rao was immediately heralded as an impressive talent in the Bolly-sphere for making a gutsy art film. The film even hopped onto the 2012 BAFTA longlist – a solid feat for a rookie director. But then, perhaps unwittingly, she ebbed away from the limelight, taking on a quieter, more self-effacing role of a producer at Aamir Khan Productions, working on films such as Taare Zameen Par (2007), Dangal (2016), Secret Superstar (2017) and Laal Singh Chaddha (2022) – only making her presence subtly known during film promotions, before receding again into the realms of public forgetfulness. With Laapataa Ladies, Rao has remerged into the spotlight with graceful aplomb.
Read the full article in Platform magazine’s May-Oct 2024 issue.
