Tanuja Chandra Is Back After 9 Years, And She Isn’t Nervous

Tanuja Chandra comes from a  family  of distinguished writers. Her brother us the  internationally  acclaimed  author Vikram Chandra and her sister is film critic Anupama Chopra.

Tanuja’s  mother  is the author Kamna Chandra who wrote such progressive-reformist films as Prem Rog and Chandni. Her  new film Qarib Qarib Singlle is  based on one  of KamnaChandra’s works.

“Qarib Qarib Singlle is actually based on radio play that my mother  wrote twenty years  ago.When I came  across it I realized how contemporary  it remained  in spite of  the  time passage,” says Tanuja.

Tanuja has not been sitting idle for  9 years.  “I completed two other scripts after my film Hope &  A  Little Sugar in 2008.  I ‘ll be going into those films ,now that Qarib Qarib Singlle is qaribqarib done with.”

The director  who’s single in real life identifies with her leading lady played by Malayalam actress Parvathi in her film.  “A  lot of  women of a certain age feel the way Parvathi’s character  does. And though Irrfan’s character comes across a  obnoxious some women do like attention from caring men even  if they are exhibitionists  the way Irrfan is in my film.”

Tanuja feels the one thing that she learnt during the making of Qarib Qartib Singlle is to love her own country’s topography. “We went to the  most beautiful places  in India, like Rishikesh and Gangtok.And we discovered how beautiful India is. If nothing  else I  hope the one takeaway  for  the audience from  my film would be the  unexplored beauty  of  India’s heartland.”