EXCLUSIVE | ‘Holy Curse’ director Snigdha Kapoor: ‘Oscars is such a grand platform…’

In an interview with Firstpost, the director of Holy Curse, Snigdha Kapoor talks on the thought that went behind making a short film. It follows 11-year-old Radha, an Indian-American child visiting India, who grapples with gender identity and puberty while family members treat their queerness as a “curse” requiring superstitious, orthodox rituals.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

What was the thought that went behind it? Was it some personal experience through somebody?

It was loosely inspired by my experience of just growing up in a very fluid way, not understanding what gender really means or the way it was told to me. A lot of times, gender equals to this is what boys are supposed to do, this is what girls are supposed to do, these are the norms and this is how you’re supposed to dress.

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These are norms and codes that people begin to start attaching as you are growing older, but when you’re younger, you’re not really thinking about gender and norms. You’re just being yourself, you’re just being a child. When I was growing up, I didn’t really have that concept and it was only when my body started changing that people in my family, elders mostly, people in my neighbourhood, they started looking at me differently. Boys I used to play cricket with, they wouldn’t play cricket with me just because something has changed in my body suddenly so I’m no longer a part of their group of my friends. So, I had a lot of angst when I was growing up.

Did things change after your move to US?

Yes, it was only after I moved to the US about 13 years ago that we also started conversations around gender beyond binary. There were different forms of expressions that I got exposed to, but none of them really felt like I could connect with per se because what ends up happening is if you attach yourself. If I am removing myself off from one label and attaching myself to a different one, even then I’m kind of limiting my expression to that specific one. So, I was just thinking about this time when I was growing up, had I known about these labels, would things have been different for me when I was growing up? Could I have been able to explain myself better?

Anup Soni's character is very much inspired by my grandfather’s character. So, I would always get into fights with him because he would tell me, “Oh, you’re a girl, therefore you can’t do this. You’re a girl, therefore you can’t talk like this. You can’t sit like this.” And that was a big problem for me.

Now that I’ve grown up, I understand where they’re coming from. I think it’s just a very different generation, and the ideas and belief systems that they grew up with, they were very different and I can’t say that they were intentionally being antagonists in my life. That was the genesis and I wasn’t necessarily thinking of themes or anything. I was just writing, channelling that feeling intuitively when I started writing the story of Holy Curse.

How do we normalise this kind of worship in our society? Again, do we really see it in today’s world?

So, I always say I’m a very spiritual person. I believe in a higher power, I believe in compassion, I believe in hearing each other out even if you might have different values in time, especially in today’s world where traditions and individuality are in conflict with each other. We are living in a very different world currently, and I think the only way we can get out of it is by just being compassionate towards each other. I just feel when we think about certain spiritual practices, I don’t think they’re inherently wrong. It’s the misuse and the misapplication of these practices that becomes problematic. Because in every culture, every society, if there is someone who doesn’t conform to the structures of that society, they are considered as a problem that needs to be fixed. And so there will be people in every society, who will take advantage of that vulnerability, that fear which a family like Radha’s (the central figure) having. They’re worried because they’re not able to understand what’s going on.

What do you have to say about your movie making it to the Oscars?

(Laughs) We are in the pre-shortlist stage right now where we’re competing with 207 odd films to get to the top 15 films in the next stage. So, it’s a very long and intense kind of process, but it just all feels worth it because, that Oscars is just such a grand platform where you can talk about these themes. Where else do you get a chance to talk about subjects like these? I think I’m very grateful for the journey the film has had so far. We’ve resonated with people not just from the South Asian community, but just from all over the world, from different cultures and communities, which just goes to show that how the films and its themes transcend cultures and geographical borders. I’ve had people who are 70-year olds who have gone through foster care system and adoption, and they have connected with this, with the film for some reason. And then there are those who have had similar experiences like Radha.

How many years did you put into this project?

I started writing the film in 2022 and by 2023, I had finished the script and then I started meeting people, taking the script to different people, and then we filmed in November ‘23, and finished the film in June 2024.

WATCH the trailer of the ‘Holy Curse’ here: