Chitrangda Singh on turning producer with Soorma: More about belief in your project, than money

Among the producers’ community, Chitrangda Singh could be considered an aberration of sorts. Her honest confessions — a trait one rarely comes across while conversing with Bollywood producers — are a welcome change. She recalls the day when the trailer of Soorma , starring Diljit Dosanjh _,_ was set to be launched. It was also the day when the trailer of Dhadak , produced by Karan Johar’s banner, was to be unveiled and at the same venue but only an hour earlier. “I was so so nervous and said to myself that I have never felt like this before. I was nervous about people’s reaction to the trailer and that Dhadak trailer was being launched almost at the same time as our trailer. I was even in favour of pushing the trailer and was just not interested in coming on the same day. But thankfully it all turned out good,” reveals Chitrangda with a sigh of relief. [caption id=“attachment_4709501” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Chitrangda Singh. Image via Facebook[/caption] Chitrangda’s impeccable sartorial sense is evident in her attire for the interview. It’s astonishing to see how easily the transition can happen from being in front of the camera to behind it. After having wowed audiences with some powerful performance in films like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and Yeh Saali Zindagi and gyrating to item numbers in the much-panned Joker, Chitrangda has donned a new role. Soorma marks her reentry into the film industry after a three-year sabbatical but as a producer. “The role of a producer is very challenging. It’s not just about money, but it’s more to do with patience and your belief in the project to take it through. Every single day there would be some issue or the other but you still have to keep going with it. Handling and managing people is a difficult task in a creative world where most people come with certain opinions. Production is definitely challenging,” says the actress-producer. The thought of stepping into the production arena was not a spur-of-the-moment decision for the actress. She is forthright when she talks about the sabbaticals she was forced to take. The period around 2014-15 was a difficult phase in the actress’ life as apart from waiting for good assignments, she was also fighting a battle on the personal front with her divorce from ace golfer Jyoti Randhawa. “I have taken big breaks of four and half years at one time and there was this two-and-half-year break the other time. People don’t forget you that easily if they have liked what you have done in past. I was not getting the kind of offers that I was looking for or the people I wanted to work with. I just opted not to work instead of doing work that I won’t be proud of. I was also going through some personal issues as well and I was not doing a great job of handling both the things.” The phase around 2014-15 was so tiring for Chitrangda that she herself began writing scripts with the sole thought that someone might just produce those stories. At that point, she wrote those stories keeping herself in mind but after she met ex-Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh and heard his story, everything else went on the backburner. “One script that I wrote is a love story and the other one is a thriller, they both are completely mainstream masala scripts. I intend to make both the stories into films someday as I have locked the screenplay and dialogue for one and work is still in progress on the second story. After I met Sandeep, Soorma became a far more powerful story than anything I was thinking of.” [caption id=“attachment_4709481” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A promo still of Soorma. Image via Twitter[/caption] There was also a shame and anger attached to the whole story for Chitrangda because although Sandeep was an ace hockey player, she was not aware of his tale. “In cricket, we talk about one century of a cricketer for days and here is a guy who has done so much and we hardly know about him. He gets Arjuna award for his sporting achievements but he does not get anything for what he has done in his life to reach the pinnacle. To me, it was a bit of an anger because I have been around sportsmen and not cricketers, and then you get to know of the step treatment that’s meted out to them. It was not like I wanted to become a producer until I found this film.” Chitrangda’s sabbatical also made her miss out on two big projects — the details of which she is unwilling to divulge — but it can be said here that one of them was Tanu Weds Manu. Remind her of her association with Sudhir Mishra and she gives him credit for the fact that she became part of the industry. She only wishes for him that his shelved project Mehrunissa , which had heavyweight actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor, gets another lease of life. “I wish there was some miracle through which Sudhir could revive his Mehrunnisa. Sudhir has been wanting to make that film for a long time. I worked on my character so much. We had even the sets come up in Lucknow.” It’s said that ABCL, the producer of Mehrunissa, had specified too many financial checks on the film which ultimately made the project unviable. Ask her point blank, that now she has become a producer, does she consult Sudhir on her films? After a long pause, the only word she utters is ‘No’. Chitrangda is also part of the new age female producers of the industry after Dia Mirza, Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Sharma. So why did she choose a serious subject as her debut vehicle when she could have easily played safe and gone for a commercial entertainer. “I don’t believe that a film becomes a success just because it’s a commercial entertainer or a love story or just because it has few item songs. Good stories are like gems these days; if you have that, half the battle is won,” signs off Chitrangda not before revealing her mantra.