There are solely a handful of Indian movies that defy the standard description and invite the audiences right into a world that may solely be understood via expertise reasonably than clarification. One such movie is Payal Kapadia’s ‘ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT’. Set in opposition to the bustling but remoted backdrop of Mumbai, this cinematic triumph transcends narrative boundaries to create one thing profound and deeply private. By way of a shocking mixture of magical realism and grounded storytelling, it delves into themes of affection, loss, identification, and self-discovery. Other than the storytelling, the cinematography by Ranabir Das, elevates the movie to an ethereal realm, capturing the stark contrasts of Mumbai’s city panorama with poetic finesse. The digital camera lingers on the town’s chaos and quiet, utilizing gentle and shadow to reflect the internal worlds of its characters.
The inventive brilliance has not gone unnoticed, as ‘ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT‘ has garnered widespread acclaim and a plethora of prestigious accolades on the worldwide pageant circuit. For Payal and Ranabir, this roaring success is one thing that they by no means imagined, as their focus was solely on telling an genuine and deeply private story. After successful the Grand Prix accolade at this 12 months’s Cannes, the movie has solidified its place as a landmark in up to date Indian cinema. It’s so sensible to see an Indian filmmaker garnering a lot success on the world stage, and changing into the first-ever feminine filmmaker from India to obtain a Finest Director nod on the Golden Globes. Just lately, I had the fortune of speaking to Payal Kapadia, and DOP Ranabir Das, about their movie and the way they created such a powerful world the place moments of magical realism are delivered to life by surreal imagery.
Payal Kapadia on the Cannes Movie Competition (Picture Credit score: Getty Photos)
Right here’s the FULL INTERVIEW:
Aayush Sharma: Congratulations on the unbelievable win for ‘All We Think about As Gentle’. The previous few days should have been a whirlwind of feelings, from press engagements to screenings, culminating on this well-deserved triumph. How does it really feel to see all of the onerous work and fervour behind this movie being celebrated on such a grand stage? Has the magnitude of this achievement really sunk in but?
Payal Kapadia: It’s been actually greater than we ever imagined for the movie. After we had been in Cannes, it already felt so huge. Each time one thing else occurs, we really feel like we wish to pinch ourselves. We labored on the movie for a very long time—particularly the 2 of us (Payal and Ranabir Das), since we write collectively as properly. It’s been a mission we’ve labored on, on and off, for nearly six or seven years, and intensely over the previous 4 years. Generally, you are feeling prefer it’s over, and that itself feels so bizarre.
Aayush Sharma: Town of Mumbai performs such a central position in your movie. How did you method portraying Mumbai not simply as a setting however as a personality in itself, with its heartbeat and tales?
Payal Kapadia: I feel it’s as a result of, you understand whenever you make a movie—or at the very least once I make a movie—it’s sort of like a response to your environment. What forces itself into the movie is one thing that considerations you or one thing you see on a regular basis, and also you get bothered by it. The contradictions of Mumbai, I feel, are very a lot a part of our day by day life. For the previous 5 years, we have now been residing right here collectively. On one aspect, you see everyone shifting right here—particularly within the movie trade—as a result of all our buddies from FTII additionally moved to Mumbai. In some senses, it’s sort of liberating as a result of you may have your personal sort of freedom right here to do issues. Nevertheless it’s additionally a metropolis that may be very merciless. It’s a really costly metropolis, not very comfy to navigate or journey in each day, contemplating the period of time it takes. There may be additionally fixed gentrification going down. It’s a metropolis that’s all the time in a state of change as a result of the individuals who include lots of problem can be very simply made to depart. We particularly noticed that through the COVID time. It’s additionally a metropolis that’s geographically altering as a result of it’s like an island metropolis that turned connected to the peninsula. And now, land reclamation can be going down. So even bodily, the town is like an amoeba. I used to be very interested by all these items in regards to the metropolis, and a few of it makes us very indignant additionally.
Ranabir Das: On the whole, Mumbai is a metropolis the place so many movies are shot. However in only a few movies will we truly see the town. We simply needed to doc some senses of now—a time now—that may stay someplace.
Payal Kapadia: As a result of I feel that Mohammad Ali Street, that space, can even someday get gentrified and be shot. And I really feel like we needed to additionally bear in mind completely different, completely different locations.
Aayush Sharma: The shift from the bustling city panorama of Mumbai to the serene coastal village marks a major tonal change. How did you conceptualize this transition, and what does it signify within the bigger context of the story?
Ranabir Das: Nicely, on some ranges, it’s very primary. Like, we simply needed a shift, a change in season. Yeah. A bit little bit of time has passed by between the earlier occasions and what’s to comply with. In that sense, the most important shift, I feel, is that the primary half may be very cloudy, and the second half may be very vivid solar. The colour palette additionally shifts within the course of. However we needed the second half to have a barely completely different feeling of time as properly. We needed it to be only one lengthy day, this whole second half. So we needed to really feel the time slightly bit extra. We needed to be slightly nearer to the characters. Within the metropolis, we all the time included the town slightly bit within the background or in some aircraft. There’s all the time some presence of the town creeping in. However over right here, we needed to be bodily nearer to the characters and be with them extra.
Payal Kapadia: The kind of this village, however our intention at the very least was to someplace keep away from that an excessive amount of, okay, and being with the character. Yeah, like that’s why most—at the very least what we tried, I don’t know the way a lot of it got here via—however lots of time, Riku would bleach out a number of the background when it was a really vast shot, for instance, as a result of the daylight wouldn’t sort of, you understand, simply keep on with that cliche of a reasonably place. One thing that, you understand, that warmth—I don’t know if you’re from Delhi, however I assume in Delhi additionally, in the summertime, that very high solar is like, it’s not very nice. In order that feeling, we needed to sort of get. I feel, yeah, as a result of Mumbai seems to be so completely different, I feel that distinction has been a lot.

Kani Kusruti as Prabha and Divya Prabha as Any in ‘All We Think about As Gentle’ (Picture Credit score: Spirit Media)
Aayush Sharma: The movie opens with a documentary-style montage of avenue scenes and migrant voices. How did your background in documentary filmmaking form this method, and what was your intent behind mixing this type with fiction?
Payal Kapadia: You realize, like, I feel each of us are very process-driven filmmakers. So lots of time, we find yourself doing lots of analysis and, you understand, not even simply analysis—once we go for location scouting, you sit, you chat with folks, you may have chai, you eat, or we simply meet folks for the sake of, you understand, understanding issues higher. Whereas doing that, we had been getting lots of completely different tales from folks—folks had been telling us, and our buddies had been additionally telling us. So we needed to maintain the essence of these conversations one way or the other within the movie, although we didn’t know the way. I feel it was the identical with our earlier movie too—like, lots of the stuff that’s there comes out later due to interactions with actuality. You may think about some issues, you write sure issues, you may have a script, and all the things, after which actuality comes and says, ‘Hiya,’ which is sweet. I actually get pleasure from that, and I feel we actually get pleasure from that. So we needed to maintain a sense of these conversations and random interactions. We additionally felt like one way or the other it gave a sort of symphony of the town, with all of the folks right here. It’s a metropolis made up of individuals from completely different components of the state, and completely different components of the nation, and also you hear so many languages in Mumbai. It’s a really numerous area. So we needed to have a jhalak of that within the movie.
Ranabir Das: Additionally, we felt that it was one thing that was treating it like there are such a lot of tales floating round, and we’re coming into certainly one of them. Only one factor we’re delving into deeper, after which that fiction additionally turns into slightly bit extra actual after that.
Aayush Sharma: The movie is devoted to your grandmother and your good friend who’s a nurse. How did their lives and experiences encourage the story of All We Think about as Gentle, and what private connections formed your method to telling this story?
Payal Kapadia: For me, my grandmother’s story has been a nagging string for all my movies to date. Each movie has this copy in it. All my brief movies have it. Principally, when she was in her 90s, she began shedding her reminiscence. So, I informed her, simply to sort of maintain the thoughts shifting, ‘Why don’t you write a diary?’ So, she began writing the diary. And one way or the other, within the diary, this husband of hers used to maintain showing. Now, she was 97 or 96 or one thing like this. Her husband died when she was 50. So, all these years, she was single. However presently, it was he who was popping out, coming in her goals and coming nearly like an individual, like a ghost, and was annoying her. So, she was very irritated. I feel she didn’t get together with him very a lot. So, I used to be pondering quite a bit about that, like this sort of factor that lots of ladies round me—like they’re impartial, they’re residing alone, working jobs, financially impartial—however these males don’t appear to go. So, I used to be pondering quite a bit about that, and like, sort of, you understand, that our concepts in India, we have now to have a look at our feminism in a approach, maintaining these sorts of issues in thoughts. At the least for me, that is my perspective. Everyone has their very own. So, like, it’s these lingering males who we don’t need them to outline us, however they’re there. Now, what to do? So, that’s sort of what this movie is about. Like, this Prabha additionally, you understand, sort of making an attempt to depart this chap who simply popped up out of nowhere. So, yeah, that’s it.
For the nurse, she was very open to telling me all in regards to the early…like, all these things about studying in regards to the placenta, how their coaching was once. So, that’s what obtained me into the nursing occupation—it’s due to all this. She used to inform me about the way it was for them once they had been college students and, you understand, the sort of issues on a day-to-day foundation, the way it was. So, I obtained very…like, she was very open to maintain telling me. I might WhatsApp her saying, ‘Is that this clinically right?’ and all that. Very beneficiant with that—consulting all the knowledge and the nursing tales. Many nurses have helped on this, and we did so many interviews, however she was one of many first folks I spoke to.
Aayush Sharma: Riku, I wanted to know, and clarify to me like I’m a 10-year-old. For you, attending to know in regards to the characters, struggles, and all the things else, play a major position in utilizing sure visible strategies, like lighting and all.
Ranabir Das: Sure, completely. It’s not solely about what a personality is feeling or going via at the moment but in addition in regards to the bigger imaginative and prescient of how a director needs the story to be informed. So, with every mission I undertake, I make a acutely aware effort to be as true and trustworthy to the essence of that mission as potential. It’s about making certain that the character’s journey, feelings, and experiences resonate with the general narrative and the director’s artistic imaginative and prescient.
Aayush Sharma: Nearly all of the movie is in Malayalam, reflecting the fact that many nurses in Mumbai come from Kerala. As somebody who didn’t develop up talking the language, how did you navigate the problem of authentically portraying this linguistic and cultural context? What steps did you are taking to make sure that the nuances of Malayalam-speaking characters had been captured with depth and accuracy?
Payal Kapadia: I’ve to say, it was powerful, and took additional time to get this proper. However I had Robin Pleasure and Naseem, my dialogue writers, who’re each from Kerala and in addition filmmakers. I truly met Robin at FTII, and I’ve all the time preferred his writing and brief movies. I needed to work with him as a result of I felt we related properly emotionally, politically, and by way of our social contexts. So, I introduced him on board nearly two years in the past, in 2022. He then started rewriting the dialogues primarily based on how we had mentioned the characters. For instance, we determined that Anu could be from Palakkad, so we adjusted her accent and even included her particular slang. We additionally labored on how the characters would talk on WhatsApp, utilizing that Gen Z type of texting. Robin and Naseem really devoted an entire 12 months to rewriting and refining the dialogues.
After we labored with the actors, we’d re-examine the dialogues collectively. The actors would ship their traces, and we’d take heed to the recordings to listen to how they sounded. This course of was important as a result of, in any other case, how would I direct in a language I don’t totally perceive, proper? We did lots of rehearsals to assist me get a way of what they had been saying and the way it felt. With Robin’s experience, he’d level out if one thing didn’t sound fairly proper, which was extremely useful. Having somebody like him by my aspect made the entire course of smoother and extra genuine.
Aayush Sharma: All We Think about as Gentle is a deeply political movie, but a lot of the dialogue round it focuses on its aesthetics or limits its politics to an Indian context, overlooking its common relevance. Have you ever seen this, and the way do you are feeling about such interpretations?
Ranabir Das: We’ve tried in our personal approach, although I’m undecided how efficiently it comes via or to what extent we’ve been proper or not. However we’ve tried to incorporate some components. I feel that, generally, any movie you watch is political, whether or not the filmmakers supposed it to be or not. You may learn into it, and also you’ll discover issues which are, in some methods, political. In that sense, there are undoubtedly features of this movie which are extra straight political, however all the things else additionally turns into one thing to interpret and perceive. In the end, everybody could have their very own interpretation.
Payal Kapadia: Yeah, true. However I feel some issues are so deeply rooted for us, just like the context of the papers and the connection, or a number of the little issues we’ve saved within the movie that we haven’t even subtitled. I really feel like there’s all the time this steadiness between explaining issues and permitting folks to really feel them. And we’re all the time battling this steadiness—how a lot to elucidate or for which viewers. So, on the finish of the day, that is the steadiness we’ve discovered for this movie. We’ll see the way it goes with the subsequent one. However yeah, many individuals don’t totally perceive our nation. There are such a lot of issues right here, so many contexts, so many layers. Some folks even ask me if we communicate “Indian,” and I’m like, no! So, what can we do? Even throughout the nation, the humanities typically signify only one voice and one opinion. Interpretation will all the time be completely different. I feel even inside our nation, a movie about Delhi will likely be seen otherwise by somebody who’s by no means been there or lived there. All of these items are true, and certainly one of my objectives was to keep away from falling into clichés about nursing, the characters, or anything. They’re simply folks. There’s nothing you may label as clichéd about their identification. That was one thing I believed quite a bit about, however once more, that’s the fantastic thing about cinema. You create one thing, you then see how folks react and be taught from it, understanding what you probably did and all the time striving to do higher, I assume.

Divya Prabha and Hridhu Haroon in a nonetheless from ‘All We Imagined As Gentle’ (Picture Credit score: Spirit Media)
Aayush Sharma: You might be fairly lively on social media, particularly on Twitter. Just lately, you talked in regards to the unsuitable facet ratio in theatres. What occurred there?
Payal Kapadia: Don’t make me cry. please. (laughs) However since I posted it on Twitter, at the very least individuals are speaking about it. I’ve seen that individuals are going, and the courageous ones are stopping the projection. I don’t perceive that—so many movies should be shot in 1.85:1 at the very least.
Aayush Sharma: Mr. Hansal Mehta, the director, stated on social media {that a} film like ‘All We Think about As Gentle’ is failing to get help from streaming platforms. Was that true? and what did you be taught from that course of?
Ranabir Das: In our case, there may be some curiosity from streaming platforms that producers are .
Payal Kapadia: However the issue is that in our case, since we’re releasing in so many nations, we will’t do a world sale. This makes streaming platforms a bit hesitant, I assume—it’s a problem for them as all of them need worldwide attain. And we actually needed a launch time. We needed the movie to be in cinemas for an extended length, in order that was one of many factors I put forth—what I may say on this matter. However the different factor you’re stating, distribution is an actual downside. This 12 months, there have been so many movies from India at Cannes. Administrators of Indian origin, my batchmate Maisa Malli’s movie was there in ACID. It’s a very nice movie, and I feel it was at MAMI as properly. We’re getting consideration within the information and all the things, however there have been so many movies there. There was Sister of Midnight, there was Santosh, and Women Will Be Women, which I feel has carried out fairly properly however didn’t get a cinema launch. So I feel we should always discover a method to watch our personal nation’s movies within the cinema, even when they’re small. Why can’t we get one slot a day for these movies? Why aren’t exhibitors prepared to take that problem? Anyway, they’ve multiplexes, to allow them to present the large films, and in the event that they present one smaller movie as soon as a month, it could possibly be excellent. The best way she makes movies is unbelievable, so on her personal, and the movies are improbable. I feel so many individuals would get pleasure from watching them, like schoolchildren. They may do outings and take all the youngsters from some colleges to the cinema. The cinemas may supply discounted costs too.
Ranabir: I really feel that these sorts of interactive issues could possibly be a method to maintain folks engaged from a younger age and encourage important pondering. Cinema can try this as properly. And relating to your preliminary query about OTT, it’s changing into an more and more troublesome market generally. When it first got here in, it appeared like there was scope for impartial cinema. There was additionally some amount of cash that filmmakers and producers may entry.

Picture Credit score: Rediff
Aayush Sharma: Each the movies that you’re a a part of are mainly impartial movies. For All We Think about As Gentle, you noticed quite a bit backing developing after the film received at Cannes. Then, Rana Daggubatti obtained concerned in it. As somebody who’s deeply concerned on this film, did you see any sort of distinction in how the film was taken to theatres or distributors as soon as an individual like Rana obtained into the method?
Ranabir Das: Sure, I imply, he additionally has a distribution firm, so in that sense, he is aware of the exhibitors, he understands the market. I don’t know if it’s merely due to his begin, however yeah, as a distributor, he undoubtedly has some quantity of expertise and information on this space.
Payal Kapadia: I feel it actually helped us as a result of he has, particularly within the south, lots of connections. They arrive from a household of distribution, and he’s additionally placing weight behind the movie. See, we don’t have the price range for large posters or to place it on a bus, and even to have it within the cinema. There weren’t any extra conventional strategies like that. So, speaking to the press and having him there to help was sort of our method to attain out.
Aayush Sharma: You’ve beforehand highlighted the challenges of securing funding for impartial movies in India. Might you share extra about your experiences navigating this panorama and the way it formed the journey of bringing ‘All We Think about as Gentle’ to life?
Ranabir Das: I imply, initially, it was a bit scary as a result of we didn’t truly know if the movie would ever get made. However our producers gave us some quantity of confidence, and we confronted a number of rejections as properly. Nevertheless, as we began getting extra funds and the script started creating additional, we began receiving more cash. With that, we felt extra assured, and we realized that it was a system that helped us.
Payal Kapadia: One factor we realized all through this course of is what a producer really is. At the least within the West, a producer isn’t somebody who has their very own cash or an organization with funds, however reasonably, they’re those who can form your mission in a approach that lets you safe funding from different sources. It’s actually a collaboration. They’ll learn the mission and, in the event that they consider in it, they received’t simply agree with you—they’ll belief their opinion and supply their help. It’s essential to seek out somebody whose judgment you belief and who additionally believes in you, and who will say, “Okay, let’s do that. No matter occurs, we’ll make it occur.” We obtained lots of that sort of motivation, even from our producer right here in India. He did his finest to get the movie off the bottom, discovering the precise folks for us to work with, and we ended up with a improbable staff of collaborators. All of that’s what makes the movie what it’s—not only one individual, however the collective effort of many individuals coming collectively.
Aayush Sharma: I had the pleasure of interviewing Kani Kusruti, and she or he informed me that you just (Payal) had envisioned her as Anu. So, how did the change occur?
Payal Kapadia: Yeah, again then, once I was nonetheless a scholar, I wrote about two pages of an idea for the movie, a unfastened thought about two buddies who had been nurses. However I hadn’t carried out a lot analysis at the moment. It was only a primary thought, and I needed to make a 20-minute movie about it. At the moment, I had seen her brief movie Reminiscences of a Machine, and I actually preferred her efficiency in it, so we needed to forged her as Anu. Nevertheless, I made a decision to not pursue it for FTII as a result of I felt there was nonetheless quite a bit I wanted to know earlier than making this movie. I didn’t really feel like I had the precise connection on the time, so I let it go. After that, I began researching, assembly extra folks, gathering tales, and finally realized it needed to be a function movie. And that, in fact, takes time. So I might work on it, then go away it, come again to it, and make one other movie in between. All through all this, I saved sending Kanni the script.
I believed I won’t be capable of do it at a youthful age. Each of us had gotten older, and we had been the identical age, so I questioned, what may I do? However then she stated, “Let me strive for the older one.” Nonetheless, I feel I used to be so fixated on her being Anu that it was initially onerous for me to just accept that she may play the older model. However she’s simply such a wonderful artist, an exquisite actor, and extremely hardworking. It’s superb. She is so inspiring, and I really feel so fortunate to have met her.
Ranabir Das: You realize, for Anu, we had seen Divya in ‘Declaration’. Yeah, yeah. And she or he was enjoying an older character in that movie, so we initially considered her as Prabha.

The forged and crew of ‘All We Think about As Gentle’ (Picture Credit score: Getty Photos)
Aayush Sharma: The movie makes use of magical realism and lyrical components within the second half. How do you see this mixing of realism and fantasy as a method to discover the internal worlds of your characters?
Payal Kapadia: Nicely, I needed to go from this very day-in-the-life type of metropolis folks, utilizing vast pictures of a metropolis with a shaky digital camera, to go deeper and deeper, till we reached such an in depth level that we may seize the feel of the pores and skin, the hair on the physique, and the grain of sand. We needed to method it as if we had been utilizing a microscope, the place we first present a large shot after which funnel all the way down to one thing as small because the grain of sand on a person’s physique. The transition from that vérité type to one thing like magical realism felt pure, changing into extra inside. I used to be pondering quite a bit about the best way to categorical want, as in our society, it’s not one thing you discuss. How do you say “I really like you” in English? How do you say it for those who haven’t stated it but? It’s troublesome. We are able to’t categorical these items simply. So I believed, cinematically, how will she hear it, or what is going to she say? Cinema permits us to talk with out talking. I needed to discover a language in our personal method to discuss sure issues, and this gave the impression to be the precise approach, a magical one. I used to be pondering quite a bit about how this had been carried out prior to now.
In Rajasthan, Gujarat, or Karnataka on the western coast, folks tales typically inform tales about longing and the boys who go away as retailers. There’s lots of journey and many ladies’s tales about how they can’t discuss to their husbands. One well-known one is Duvida, the place the husband comes again as a ghost, and she or he falls in love with him, however finally, he will get caught. There are tales the place the person turns into a tree or a thief. Sangam poetry additionally makes use of nature to speak about longing. I used to be fascinated with all these items, in addition to a brief story by Márquez I learn the place a person washes up in a village. Whereas he’s handed out, the ladies begin saying issues like, ‘Oh, he’s so good-looking,’ or, ‘His household should have made huge doorways in the home as a result of he’s so tall,’ creating their very own tales. Their needs are projected onto the lifeless man. So I used to be on this thought of not with the ability to communicate, and the way we begin projecting issues and discover a method to launch that ache. In my head, all of it simply made sense.
Payal Kapadia’s ‘ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT’ is enjoying worldwide.