Pratibha Parmar
Nina’s Heavenly Delights
2006 Bite the Mango Film Festival (UK)
www.ninasheavenlydelights.com/video.html
Bio: British filmmaker Pratibha Parmar has spent more than twenty years behind the camera bringing fresh perspectives to stories of women, minorities, and social issues. Her award-winning work has been exhibited widely at international film festivals and broadcast in many countries. Nina’s Heavenly Delights, her feature film debut, was released in the United Kingdom and the United States in 2006/2007. Born in Kenya, of Indian decent, Parmar moved with her family to England at a young age. Following university in England, she began her filmmaking career with documentary shorts as a way to express her passion in representations of subjects and issues not in the mainstream.
In 1991, her career reached a critical turning point with the release of A Place of Rage, a documentary about African American women’s role in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1993, Parmar released Warrior Marks, which documented ritual female mutilation in Africa, which came at a time when the subject was still taboo in the international community. Parmar has directed music videos and is the co-author and editor of several books. She is a past winner of the San Francisco Frameline Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. (Credit: Kai Films)
Description: Nina’s Heavenly Delights is a surprising love story where Scottish humor meets Bollywood spectacle! It follows the mixed fortunes of a Glaswegian family, the Shahs, and their award-winning Indian restaurant, The New Taj.
The story is told through the eyes of Nina Shah, a young Scottish Asian woman. Nina had left home under a cloud after an argument with her father, but when he dies suddenly, Nina is forced to return. Her return reunites her with her childhood friend Bobbi, a wannabe Bollywood drag queen, and brings her face to face with Lisa, a charismatic young woman who now owns half the restaurant.
Then Nina discovers her father’s secret—The New Taj has been selected for The Best of the West Curry Competition. In the turbulent, but exhilarating days that follow, Nina, with Lisa’s help, embarks on a personal mission to win the trophy for the third time. But Nina’s feelings are thrown into turmoil when she realizes that she is falling in love. (Credit: Nina’s Heavenly Delights Official Website)
Interview Date: November 19, 2007
Women and Hollywood: Why was it important for you to tell this story?
Pratibha Parmar: Many reasons. One of the common wisdoms in the film industry is that you should always make your first film about something personal. So I chose to write a story that was based on my own experience of falling in love in a way and with a person that was a complete surprise! I wanted to tell a story that had at its heart a nontraditional, ‘forbidden love’ but using a traditional genre like romantic comedy.
W&H: It took seven years from writing the story until production. How did you persevere in your vision throughout that time?
PP: Now I know why they say make your first film about something you feel passionate about—because in that long seven-year-journey to get this film onto the screen, it really was sheer blind passion and determination that helped me to keep going. You hear so many more no’s then you ever hear maybe or yes. It was also pride and sometimes anger that kept me going. I could see male directors with half the experience that I have making their debut features without the kind of intense struggle that I was going through, without having to “prove” that they were ready to make a feature.
By the time I had come to make Nina’s Heavenly Delights, I had already made award-winning documentaries and also directed a number of short dramas. So it was frustrating to say the least when potential financiers kept asking me if I was confident enough to direct drama and if I could work with a big crew. I don’t think the majority of men in the film industry internationally have an innate sense of confidence in women directors in the way they do with male directors.
W&H: Did you write the film knowing that you would direct it? Do you think that more women directors are writing their own scripts because so few scripts are available to them to direct?
PP: Oh yes, when I wrote the story, it was very much with a view to directing it. I am a director first and foremost and want to tell stories that I don’t often see on the cinema screens. I think first we have to be seen as directors to be even sent scripts for consideration. I always have to generate my own work and that can often mean that you have to wait so many more years until you make your next feature. So it would be lovely to be sent scripts that have already gone through “development hell” and are ready to go into production.
W&H: Music is a very important element in the film and brings life to many of the scenes, especially Bobbi’s. Talk a little about the importance of music in telling this story.
PP: Music has always been a key storytelling device for me. I had chosen some of the songs in the film very early on. I wanted the texture of the music to reflect the world of the film, which is a cross-cultural and cross-everything else kind of world. The few Bollywood songs in the film have lyrics that help to advance the narrative. And then there are also contemporary pop songs like The Monkees’ “Day Dream Believer” and tracks from some great female singer/songwriters like Alex Parkes, Shelley Poole, and Holly Vallance, whom many people will recognize. Music can trigger so many different emotional responses, and you don’t always need dialogue when a lyric or a musical refrain can evoke the mood or story so much more effectively.
W&H: What do you want people to get out of this film?
PP: I want people to leave the cinema feeling happy, hungry, and horny. No seriously—I want people to see the characters beyond their sexuality or culture. The film showed on British Airways long-haul flights last Christmas and a friend was traveling from London to Delhi when it was screening. He got his whole cabin to watch the movie and at first a few of the Indian mothers were saying, “Oh dear, we didn’t know this happened in our communities”—i.e., a woman falling in love with another woman—but then halfway through the film, he said everyone forgot that Nina is gay and were rooting for her to win the cooking competition. It was great to hear that.
W&H: There are so few films released in the United States that feature female leads, and you not only have a woman lead, she is Asian and realizing she is gay. How is the film being marketed so that the widest audience possible will be exposed to the story? Do you think that the audience will be gay people, Asian people, Scottish people, women, or all of the above?
PP: I hope that the audience will be people of every color, sexuality, and musical tastes. Everyone who enjoys a feel-good movie! So far the film has screened at more than fifty international film festivals—many of them mainstream festivals and some for niche markets. But across the board, the audiences have loved it. From Hong Kong to India to Paris to Turin, people have responded very positively.
The U.S. distributors, Regent Releasing, have been fantastic so far. They totally get that the movie has great potential to break out into the mainstream and so they are trying (with their limited resources) to get the word out there. Ultimately with films that are not “star” led or have some kind of celebrity marketing push, it’s the word of mouth that is crucial. So I really hope people who have seen it and like it blog about it, get onto Rotten Tomatoes and other sites and write or vote for it and help spread a buzz.
W&H: What does it mean to be a woman director in a world where so few women are directors? Do you feel an added responsibility?
PP: The main responsibility I feel is to myself as a storyteller and to make films with truthfulness, honesty, and integrity. In doing so, if the work inspires other women to want to become directors, then that’s terrific, but I am not into carrying that burden of responsibility for all women or all minorities for that matter. Having said that, I am an Associate of the Birds Eye View Women’s Film Festival in the United Kingdom, and have been their supporter since they first formed. As an active member of Women in Film & Television in the United Kingdom, I helped to initiate the Women Directing Change program where less experienced women directors get the opportunity to shadow more experienced film directors, both men and women. The abysmally low number of women directors is appalling—so I am supportive of anything that helps to change that.