Exclusive! Arjunn Dutta on Shrimati: Empowerment is also about accepting and enjoying who you are

Arjunn Dutta’s Shrimati, which features Swastika Mukherjee, Barkha Sengupta, Trina Saha, Kheya Chattopadhyay and Soham Chakraborty in the lead, is all set to be released on July 8. The family drama that delves into the life of a happy homemaker Shrimati is billed as a feminist take on choices, body positivity and a lot more social conventions. 

Talking about the films, Arjunn says that he truly believes in self-appreciation. “I think accepting the way you are is the most important step towards self-love. Like the way society cannot stop you from going out to work, it cannot force you to step out and be independent also. If you are a happy homemaker please be so. My mother is not financially independent and that has never influenced her decision-making,” says the director. 

Shrimati also deals with body positivity. In trailers and songs, we see how Shrimati, aka Swastika, is asked to lose weight. “I have faced body shaming all my life. While I seriously believe in staying fit and encouraging healthy living, I feel there should not be a social standard of body type. That is simply not possible. One needs to stay fit and healthy but can’t be told to look a certain type,” he says.   

Arjunn says that to show empowerment, Shrimati has different women from different age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds living happily under the same roof. “One prim-and-proper NGO-running mother-in-law (Debjani Bose), one idle and happy homemaker Shrimati, one extremely empowered househelp Kajol (Kheya) and an independent and working sister-in-law Brishti (Trina) live under the same house, respectfully. There is no iota of kitchen politics and all those cliched stereotypes. We show a happy family where people respect each other,” says the director. 

Cinematographer Supratim Bhol has worked as the DOP in the film. Arjun says that he has ‘solid tuning with him’. “He has been DOP in all the five films I made. I know him forever and he knows what is needed. We share solid tuning, so much so that we don’t even need to explain each other shots and scenes,” says Arjunn.