Director Manish Mundra refuses to call Siya a grim film. “It is a reality film,” he says of the hard-hitting account based in a north Indian village that has started streaming on Zee5.
Siya is a 17-year-old from a village whose dream was to work. “But she was abducted and raped. As a result, her life turns upside down. Yet she collects herself and decides to get on. The circumstances are such that she decides to fight back. She faces emotional trauma while encountering the impediments in the system, including the police, the medical system, the legal system.... The process is long and the culprits are powerful. This film is about her journey to seek justice and the condition of rape survivors — the kind of trauma they go through and the mental strength that they need,” says Mundra.
The film did not get a good response during its theatrical release last year but the director is hopeful of better response on OTT in the intimate setting of the viewer’s private space.
“When we decided to make the film, we knew the path would not be rosy. But we still wanted to follow the natural progression of releasing first in theatres,” Mundra says.
Pooja Pandey, a Jabalpur girl, plays the title role of Siya. While she describes the opportunity to play such a tough character so early in her career as a dream, she remembers the trauma that she went through in portraying the character. “There were a lot of disturbing scenes. I used to have to do meditation. Even then I’d have panic attacks. Our director, Manish Mundra, gave me a lot of support. It took me three-four months to get out of that character.” She didn’t share her mental state with her parents but her elder sister helped her a lot, she says.
While preparing for the role, it helped that the village in Uttar Pradesh where the shooting took place, Pratapgarh, happened to be her father’s native place. “So I had explored it as a child and knew how people lived, spoke and behaved in the area.” Even then, it was tough to pull off the role of a rape victim. “I never thought I would play such a heavy role so early in my career,” reflects Pooja. “Aj bhi agar main apne film dekhti hoon toh mere haath payr heel jatey hai,” she adds.
Pooja comes from a theatre background and this is her first release. “But actually this is my second film. I had debuted in Coat, a film on casteism, in which a low-caste boy falls in love with a middle-class girl. His aspiration is to wear a coat. It is a social drama with a dash of humour, on his journey,” she says. Her co-actor is Vivaan Shah, Naseeruddin Shah’s son, who was seen in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Happy New Year. “It would have been my first release had Covid not come in the way,” she points out. She has another release coming up, Satyug. “It is based on rituals,” she says.
Siya is Mundra’s first film as director after producing 12 films, including Newton, starring Rajkummar Rao, and Masaan, the debut vehicle of Vicky Kaushal. “As a producer, you have the luxury to select the script and the director. But the fun of telling your own story is as a director. I felt it was the right time for me to direct,” he says.
Going forward, Mundra does not want to have to choose between production and direction. “I am working on my own story to direct as also starting on a Hollywood project as producer. We are also working on comedy films, social drama and documentaries.”
Siya is still doing the rounds of the festivals in Melbourne, New York, London, Ottawa etc but for Mundhra, the best part was being selected for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. “It was one of the four-five Hindi films that were chosen. So I think it was a great achievement.”
Even after a string of films on serious issues, Mundhra is not planning anything lighter. “As a director, I don’t think I am cut out for comedies. I am more into serious films. But as producer, we are looking at all kinds of films,” he signs off.
