Divya Dutta on The Relationship Manager: Domestic violence really needs to be spoken about

Divya Dutta shot for The Relationship Manager from her home during the lockdown.
Directed by Falguni Thakore, The Relationship Manager stars Divya Dutta and Annup Soni. The film is streaming on the Large Short Films’ YouTube channel. The Relationship Manager discusses the plight of victims of domestic violence. Dutta shot for this short film from her home during the lockdown.

In this interview with indianexpress.com, Divya talks about why she agreed to be a part of this short film and her experience of working from home.

Excerpts from the interview:

Why did you choose to do a film on domestic violence?

It is self-explanatory why I agreed to do this film. This is a subject that really needs to be spoken about as much as possible. We already have so much domestic violence in our society and it has been increasing since the lockdown. And, half of the women are conditioned to not speaking up because of their circumstances or social situations. The whole medium of short films is so strong that it impacts you anyway. You don’t need to preach, you just need to be told in a subtle way that you have the voice.

How was it shooting from home during the lockdown?

This is not exactly my first time shooting from home, I have shot for some advertisements from home. This was different, we had our DOP and director giving instructions from far away. It was very safe, and I think it is very well done. The shoot was for a few hours.

The film talks about domestic violence in well-to-do households, unlike some films earlier where it is shown as an issue of a low-income household.

People used to think that when you are an intelligent, independent strong woman who comes from a higher society then you will not take domestic violence. But it happens everywhere. In fact, I think it is in these well-to-do households that we don’t even come to know if there is a domestic violence victim. You don’t even get to know what a person is hiding behind their smiles because there are a lot of things at stake sometimes. People are always concerned about the family’s name, the children, and many other things.

Before the lockdown, we watched Thappad, which was on a similar topic. What is your take on the comparison of your film with Taapsee Pannu’s film?

Both films talk about the same issue and are important films. Even if it is ‘a thappad (slap)’ it is not acceptable. In fact, Taapsee also tweeted about our film and I thanked her for it. It is the same cause. We condition ourselves, we normalise abuse, breaking that conditioning is tough but it is really important.

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