Shweta Tripathi has built a career on careful choices: Masaan, Haraamkhor, Gone Kesh, Cargo, and the series Mirzapur, Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein and Kaalkoot. Now she is taking a new seat. The actor is making her feature production debut with Mujhe Jaan Na Kaho Meri Jaan, a love story between two women in which she stars with Tillotama Shome under director Sanjoy Nag.
It is a shift that has been building. Tripathi says she had already been producing plays for 15 years, but film production was a larger, more demanding canvas, and she did not pretend to know it all.
Learning the producer’s craft
She made a point of calling people she trusted. Anurag Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan became her go-to people for the mechanics of filmmaking, she says. She asked Ghaywan questions directly and kept returning to Kashyap for guidance.
Their advice was practical and specific:
- How to plan and protect a budget
- How to approach a project and its subject
- How different heads of department operate
- What kind of collaborators to back
The connection runs deep. Kashyap produced Ghaywan’s 2015 debut Masaan, which made Tripathi a breakout name, and later backed her independent films Zoo and Cargo. So the mentorship is also a continuation of an old producing relationship.
Why she became a producer
The trigger was familiar to many actors: the scripts arriving after Masaan were not the ones she wanted to make. She recalled that Dostana director Tarun Mansukhani told her to do it herself. Tripathi resisted at first, saying she was not a writer-director, but later reasoned that she already knew many writers and directors worth supporting.
Her stated goal is to give power to other people. She wants newer storytellers to be able to raise more money and get their films made, and sees producing as a way to root for talent she believes in. She represented India through the WIF India initiative at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, part of a broader push into the business side of the industry.
Mirzapur’s big screen milestone
While the producing journey begins, her acting career is having a moment. Mirzapur: The Movie, where she reprises Golu Gupta, has grossed Rs. 334.62 crore globally. Tripathi linked the figure to nine years of the Mirzapur franchise and credited every department’s hard work and the audience’s turnout for the win.
As for what she will produce next, Tripathi says she is open to any genre as long as the story is driven by emotion. Her debut film, she believes, arrives at a time when love, hope and acceptance deserve the spotlight. “It’s a beautiful love story,” she said, “and I think love is very important right now.”
Source: Hindustan Times