'Waack Girls' director Sooni Taraporevala on creating a series about women empowerment through dance

Mekhola Bose (in pink) leads the web series

Write what you know. That's a principle writer-director Sooni Taraporevala disagrees with. "If you only write what you know, you'd be writing about a little bubble," she points out. Instead, she believes in writing about what she doesn't know, what excites her. From this thought is born Waack Girls. Her maiden web series tells the story of six Kolkata women, who specialise in waacking, a street-dance style that originated in the US.

"I didn't know what waacking was till I saw Mekhola [Bose, lead actor] dance. I was inspired by her dance, and then had the idea of weaving a story around waacking," starts Taraporevala of Salaam Bombay (1988) fame. Venturing into an unfamiliar territory meant the creator-director had to dive into intense research. "When you write about what you don't know, you owe it to the subject to explore it fully. Talking to Mekhola was a start. The writers and I tried to get Kolkata right. My cameraperson and I scouted locations, finding the big houses, and capturing the city's flavour. The next step was to get the girls' stories right. Having six women dancing to disco music in an old house - [that juxtaposition] excited me."

Sooni Taraporevala

At the core of this female-fronted show is women's experiences. Was it hard to get the Prime Video show, led by Mekhola Bose and Rytasha Rathore, off the ground? Thankfully not, says Taraporevala. "It wasn't a challenge, thanks to Aparna Purohit, who greenlit the development immediately, and then the current team who have been supportive throughout. I'm lucky that I get to make the stories I want to, exactly the way I want to. The audience is ready for it because there is space for every kind of story today."

So, does she believe things have changed for the better for women? As someone who has been in the industry for almost 40 years, she is optimistic about the change she has witnessed. "Yes, things have changed in urban India; probably not in rural India. But that's the case, not just with women, but with so many things. We made Salaam Bombay in 1988, and we still have street kids today," she emphasises.

A still from Waack Girls

For now though, she is happy to be able to bring a story about women's empowerment to a wide audience. Even happier that she did it with six young female actors at the fore. Asked whether it was daunting to manage the eclectic cast, Taraporevala says, "Mira [Nair, friend and frequent collaborator] had given me one piece of advice before my [directorial] debut, Little Zizou [2008]. She had said, just love your actors. That was such good advice. I love all my actors. Rytasha was my most experienced actor, so she held it together on set. Most of my HoDs were women, and those who weren't, were all allies. I hope the show will have an impact in terms of showing female friendships as wholesome and warm. Also, what kind of woman you can be. All six characters are very much themselves. Having the aspiration that you can be what you want to be [is so liberating]."