Surrogate motherhood comes under Bollywood scanner

The director said he decided to focus on the subject after hearing about a highly successful career couple who opted for a surrogate pregnancy while working in a business house in Kolkata before plunging into fulltime film-making.

"Later, I came to know from my acquaintances that many urban upper middle class women forsook their desire to be biological mothers due to pressure from career building and domestic responsibilities," Das told PTI over phone from a Mumbai studio.

Das said he had sought to project the frenetic pace of life of modern-day couples who have very little time left to themselves these days while dwelling on their love, longings and priorities.

The leading roles are played by Bengali film diva Rituparna Sengupta and Kiran Janjani as the upper class couple and Yashpal Sharma and Divya Dutta as their counterfoil living in a rural setting.

The director places the two sets of couple in the movie to represent two sets of value systems present in Indian society of today. One couple bent on even suppressing the natural instinct of giving birth to a child; another holding on to the uncomplicated way of life where material needs find a lesser space.

Das said Rituparna fits the role of an upper middle class career woman while Divya shed her glamourous image to enact the role of village belle. "Divya actually prodded me to give her that role," Das said.

"Also when I approached Yashpal and told him it would not be a typical negative character he wanted to hear the script and instantly gave his words for the role of Gauri's rustic husband Mohan," Das said.

Das, who had formerly assisted three-time national award winning Bengali director Raja Sen, has made a 30-minute documentary on Kolkata's rickshaw-pullers which was screened at a number of film festivals.

"I have a plan to portray on celluloid the uncertanity faced by today's youth vulnerable as they are in the present age," he said and lauded the new breed of young directors who are creating a wave in Hindi films by dealing with unconventional topics.