Tannishtha Turns Writer For Onir With An Unusual Love Story About Driving Lessons

The very talented actress Tannishtha Chatterjee is on to her new vocation. Tannishtha turns writer with a film entitled Driving Lessons.

Says Tannishtha,  “It’s an idea I had been toying with for some time about a relationship that grows between a driving instructor and the woman whom he teaches to drive over a period of two weeks. The film addresses issues such as class differences and women’s empowerment but in a  light unostentatious way.I didn’t want my first attempt at writing to be topheavy with  ideas and  messages.”

 The challenge of playing a woman who is not economically challenged was what attracted Tannishtha to this film. “I think  I’ve done enough of those roles that require me to be impoverished and oppressed. Though the challenge of making every underprivileged character dignified and unvanquished is welcome at the moment I am done with playing these crushed, oppressed women in crumpled cotton sarees. The last of these roles, for now, is in director Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout where I play Nawazuddin’s wife once again.I shot for this film seven years ago.”

 In   Driving Lessons, Tannishtha has written a classy role from the upperclass for herself. “It feels different to be playing a  woman who doesn’t have to constantly worry about how to feeed herself and her children,” she  laughs.

 The film directed by Onir pairs Tannishtha with Onir’s protégé  Ashish  Bisht. Apparently, Bisht  plays a younger man to Tannishta’s character of the bored housewife in search of excitement behind the wheels.