Reema Kagti: My father approved of my career choice only after watching Lagaan | Sit With Hitlist

Reema Kagti

Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar have remained friends and colleagues for over two-and-half decades, starting out as assistant directors (ADs) on Kaizad Gustad's Bombay Boys (1998), and with a combined filmography of over 10 films/shows as credited writers on the screen, since.

They are "professional soulmates," they concur. So, the social lives are largely separate? "We do have the same gang, when we hang out. But let's just put it this way: Zoya is extremely social. I'm absolutely anti-social," Reema says during Mid-day's Sit With Hitlist conversation.

While we know enough about Zoya's background, famously the daughter of writers Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani - we barely know anything about Reema. Most of her video interviews online are with Zoya. Reema's calmingly chilled, securely quiet. Which sufficiently explains the "anti-social" self-description, doesn't it?

Reema says she grew up in Assam, went to a boarding school, Loreto Convent, in Shillong, Meghalaya. She says, "Back then, there were hardly any good schools in Assam, so it was common for parents to send their kids off to boarding schools. Unlike in bigger cities, where only the naughty kids got sent!"

She was admittedly a naughty kid, though, "I used to make my parents' lives hell. But they were supportive." Not as much for her filmmaking ambitions, initially.

"I think my father had this very 1980s, '90s notion of Bollywood. He was very disappointed [with my career choice]. It's only when I got him to watch Lagaan, that I was an AD on, that he said, okay - if this is the kind of films you want to make."

Reema's father was an engineer at an oil company, before leasing out a 350-acre land to farm, "four hours' drive from China". The umbilical cord with her home-state remains.

"You can't really outgrow your roots. My cook is Assamese. I eat Assamese food. My family is back in Assam." Reema had moved to Bombay for college, at Sophia, and thereafter a course in social communications at the media school, Sophia Polytechnic.

"At some point, I bumped into Zoya. We liked the same kinda films, had a lotta common ground, we began writing small stuff together" she trails off.