Sheetal Shetty, an anchor on a popular channel, later established herself as an actor in a handful of good flicks. Now, with Window Seat, she has taken up a new role as a director. Sheetal admits that she is going through mixed feelings ahead of the film’s release this week. “There is a mixture of emotions. Having spent a lot of time on the project, I guess I have become possessive about Window Seat.”
She is a self-taught person, but none of it has been her aspiration nor a dream. She considers all of this as part of her job. “I call it destiny and a chance to travel in new territories, and I hope it serves the purpose. My jobs as an anchor and actor were for survival. However, ‘direction’ is a passion, which I developed during my acting stints.
After anchoring and a few acting projects, I took time to gain experience by doing video production for my company, She Tales. I later took to making documentaries and short films. My experience of working behind the screens since 2014, in a way, helped me direct,” says the debutant director.
Sheetal Shetty, who has roped in Nirup Bhandari, Amrutha Iyengar, and Sanjana Anand for Window Seat, defines the film as a dark murder mystery about a love story. It is the story, which fetched me the producer, and the artists. Interestingly, Window Seat, my first script, also became my directorial project.
The story of Window Seat was written when I was going through a rough patch and a low phase in my professional life. What was written on just a piece of paper will now be on a big screen. Isn’t it a big deal? Initially, I never thought of direction. However, my filmmaker friends felt that I should direct my own story,” says Sheetal, who adds that she didn’t take the job lightly, and made sure to acquire the necessary skills. Sheetal is grateful to her friends Rishab Shetty and Rakshit Shetty for their advice and is equally thankful to the film’s producer Jack Manju and Sudeep for their unflinching support.
“Whoever has watched Window Seat till now has only given positive feedback and that has given me confidence. It wouldn’t have happened without my team,” she says. She is sitting on a few more scripts but will decide about her next step after seeing the response to Window Seat.