'It came to me naturally'

Intriguing story

Actor Konkona Sen Sharma says directing and writing her upcoming film, ‘A Death in the Gunj’, came naturally to her as this was a story she had heard as a child from her father and it always fascinated her. ‘A Death in the Gunj’ is set in the colonial town of McCluskieganj in the winter of 1979. The film chronicles the story of an uneventful family holiday which takes a turn when the guests start playing with the spirits, and the holiday ends in an implosion, resulting in an unavoidable event.

“‘A Death in a Gunj’ is a story I am familiar with, I had heard it as a kid from my dad. It fascinated me so much that I developed the idea further and I eventually had a structure for a feature film,” Konkona said.

“It came to me very naturally. I had a lot of interest in it and eventually decided to write a screenplay. I wanted to present it in an interesting  way to others people,” she said.

The ‘Wake Up Sid’ star said McCluskieganj was a place where her parents used to go often to visit her grandparents, and the story conceptualised during many such road trips.

“My grandparents used to live at McCluskieganj and my parents, in the 70s, used to visit them a lot. They would go on road trips with family and friends and there were many stories born out of those,” she said. “Some good, some fun, and some not-so-fun stories. This was one of the stories which had a certain circularity to it, something eerie about it which I found interesting. In fact, my dad later wrote a three-page short story about it,” Konkona said.

The 36-year-old actor, who is making her directorial debut with this movie, said ‘A Death in the Gunj’ is a “very visual and atmospheric kind” of movie.

“I didn’t start writing till I knew everything. I knew all my characters, I knew what was going to happen from beginning to end. It is a very visual, atmospheric kind of film, set in a specific time and place,” she said.

The movie, starring Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin, Vikrant Massey, Tilotama Shome and Gulshan Devaiah, is the opening film of the 18th Jio MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival with Star. Konkona said though she got a good response at various international festivals, she is nervous now that the film is going to be screened for home audience.

“I am very nervous for the premiere. The response at TIFF was good, at Busan as well. But now, of course, it is the home audience at MAMI,” she said.