I blinked when I learned Tisca Chopra has made her directorial debut with Rubaru, a new short film out on YouTube. So allied has the actor been with the movement-having starred in critically-acclaimed shorts like Chhuri and Chutney - that I assumed she had already made the leap.
As it turns out, Chopra was inspired by an old interview of Meryl Streep, where the Oscar-winning actor had spoken about hitting middle-age and the professional insecurities it brings. "I started wondering if Meryl Streep is thinking this...Then what will happen to people who are lesser mortals?"
The answer is gingerly explored in Rubaru, where she essays an actor gradually fading from the screen. The meta-ness goes a level deeper: Chopra’s character, Radha, is acting in a play, about a writer on the wane.
The play, in turn, is inspired by the life of Virginia Woolf, one of the great troubled writers of the 20th century. "The subtext of Rubaru is universal. It's everyone’s story to stay relevant and make sense of changing times," Chopra says.
Watching the film now, six months after the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput, it’s hard not to connect it to a larger comment on the mental well-being of actors-and the nature of showbiz itself. "We shot the film in February so we had no inkling about that tragedy. Subsequently, a lot of people, and not just actors, have opened up (about mental health). What I wanted to do with my film is take you inside an actor's psyche and the pain that goes into a performance," Chopra says.