Before any shoot or during scripting phase, I always sit with my actors and critically analyze the characters, dialogues, their strength, fear, insecurity, vulnerability, goal etc. Not only that, I try to deeply understand the actors as they are in their personal space. From many different conversations with some top actresses of my country, I figured that they all are suffering from one big common fear, the fear of getting old. The fear of not getting roles of big budget - blockbuster cinemas as the heroine or main protagonist. The fear of being called a former-heroine, former-beauty, former-megastar.

This topic triggered me and I dug deep. After reading a few interviews of famous Hollywood, European & Bollywood actresses, I realized that this insecurity is a common issue of the global entertainment world. Male dominated show-biz has a stereotypical template on portraying women in movies. The formula of studios/producers is very simple: take the most beautiful woman as a heroine, invest in her in a few movies, then introduce another younger heroine and kick out the previous one saying she is not appealing anymore. Her wedges get lesser & often are offered side characters. Male actors get bypassed from these issues because their skills are not considered on the barometer of beauty, and it is said that male actors’ payment increases as they grow older. What a black & white judgement.

As our entertainment industry takes external beauty over acting-skills more seriously, the actresses then fall in the trap of quantity over quality, plastic surgery, drug abusing, imbalanced lifestyle. Ultimately, they lose their mental control & stability of life. They either marry a rich guy, changes profession or commit suicide. It has become a pattern, a tragic fate of almost every heroine.

I had a vision of bringing this topic, this taboo to reality by making a short film on it where I showed a former-heroine Nishita Ali in her most vulnerable break-down moment of career. She Thinks her wrinkles are her arch enemy and her loosened skin betrayed her. No industry friends are listening to her scream, her cry. She is still intoxicated with her golden day memories and her sanity seems to be long-lost. But a small object one day changed her thought process. A vintage marine-telescope which was used in big ships to find seashores from hopelessly infinite horizon, filled her with positive thoughts. She looks back to her journey, this time, positively. She remembers all those laughter, joy and experiences that built her. She prepares to be real. She names the wrinkles as laugh lines. She makes peace with them.

I am always inspired from the stories I witness first hand. Through my story, I always try to break the social taboos & introduce positivity by demolishing anarchy. “Laugh Lines”, my film is a metaphor for modern-day anomaly, a mark of an enduring human story and giving power to the suppressed minority.