It’s opened to overwhelming and unanimous praise and Calcutta girl Shonali Bose was in town recently for a special screening of Margarita with a Straw,  an initiative of the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, supported by The Telegraph, INOX and Park Plaza.

How special was it to show Margarita with a Straw to people who have been an integral part of your childhood in Calcutta?
I was crying at the screening, you know. It’s just so special to be here. I was born at Woodlands nursing home. When I was just about two or three, my mother and Sudha Kaul (now the vice-chairperson of Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy) founded the Spastics Society here in Calcutta. So, that part of the journey that is there in the film is my very beautiful and loving childhood… my mashis, my school, my teachers, my parents… I had a very grounded childhood in Calcutta.

It was here that I was inspired as a filmmaker. I remember I had gone to watch Pather Panchali as a young girl — it was also part of our Bangla text — and I always knew that I wanted to make films. Yes, I have made my films in Hindi because there is always that practical reality that the film needs to reach out to a wider audience. In Amu (2005), I had made the characters Bengali and I suffered for that because the whole film was in Bengali-English and it was hard to get a nationwide release. I am always a big supporter of regional cinema, though.

So yes, coming back to your question, Calcutta has been my backbone and my inspiration. It’s so wonderful to show my film here. I couldn’t ask for more. In no part of the world was the screening as special as this one today (smiles). 

Is this the film you always wanted to make?
Not really, initially. But I have grown up seeing close people like that. My pishi’s daughter is Malini Chib, who is just a year younger than me, and she has cerebral palsy. After I made Amu, Malini told me: ‘You better make your next film on CP (cerebral palsy)’. Chittagong (2012) was already done by then… I had co-written and co-directed it and it was going to be my film but I gave it to Bedo (husband Bedabrata Pain) to direct. When Chittagong finished, Malini again told me: ‘You have to make a film and put CP on the global map’. But honestly, I really couldn’t find the angle… I could have done it the traditional way… about someone afflicted with CP who triumphs against all odds. But I have grown up with Malini and Jeeja (Ghosh) and I didn’t find the traditional angle interesting.

Till the day I remember Malini was about to turn 40 and I asked her what she wanted for her birthday. Her answer was: ‘I just want to have sex!’ That was startling and made me think that I, as a family member, was guilty about not paying heed to that aspect… that Malini’s needs were as important as mine. That was the germ that started me off on the film. 

It was only about five years ago that I started writing the film. But then, there was the mishap of my son Ishan’s death and the script was left unattended to for a long time. It was only on his 17th birthday, four months after his death, that I started writing it again. If you ask me, I think Margarita with a Straw has turned out much better than the film I set out to make. Every time I see it — I won’t lie (smiles) — I like it better. Actually, this film is a lot of people, not just me. I wouldn’t have made this film if Kalki (Koechlin) hadn’t done it or if Nilesh (Maniyar, co-director) hadn’t helped me take the film to another level. So today, if I see the film and go ‘wow’, it’s not for me, but for the fact that we managed to pull it off.  I wanted to test whether I could really pull this off (smiles). 

Why call the film Margarita with a Straw?
The idea for that also came from Malini. I remember the complete astonishment with which waiters would look at us when Malini and I would go to a restaurant and I would say: ‘One whisky with soda for me and one whisky and soda in the plastic sipper for her’. In my film, the straw is a symbol of empowerment. Also, the idea of the film inspired the title and that is... when life hands you lemons, make a margarita and raise a toast (smiles). 

When we started publicising the film in India, we were told to go with a Hindi title because Margarita with a Straw gave the impression that it was an English film. We released a trailer with PK, calling the film Chhoone Chali Aasmaan, but there was so much protest against it that we decided to stick with the original title. 

Were there any apprehensions about how India would react to a film that speaks about the sexual needs of a differently-abled girl?
The screening in Calcutta, being our first in India, was actually a test for us and given how appreciative the audience has been here, I am confident that the film will be accepted in India. We had the world premiere at Toronto where the entire hall of 800 people just stood up at the end and kept standing and clapping. It won the award for Best Asian Film there. We went to many more festivals after that. Here in India, we had a screening before today for a select group of 30 Bollywood people hosted by Aamir Khan. Aamir and Kiran (Rao) had seen it earlier, but this time they saw a finished film. They all came out crying… Kiran and I were in Loreto House together and she was literally howling at the end of it.

Priyanka Roy