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All I want is everything to release on Women's Day

Jhansi Lakshmi, well-known TV anchor and actor, and Shital Morjaria, writer and documentary filmmaker, teamed up for the TV programmes Naveena (which won Shital the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2008) and Chetana, which dealt with gender and civic issues.

 The two are now ready with their first independent film All I Want Is Everything which is releasing on March 8 (International Women's Day).

Jhansi and Rekha Pappu have produced the film while Shital has written and directed it.

'It's a film in a film'

"I thought why not write something on female bonding? We have friends, we too hang out. So I decided to write on this theme," says scriptwriter Shital.

It took a year for the film to materialise. "Shital would read out the scenes to me and Rekha. Many drafts were made before the script was finalised," says Jhansi, the co-producer.

Shital thought it would be better to make the film in English as she "thinks in English. Maybe in future, I may attempt something in Hindi or Telugu."

She chose to write about friendship between three girls. "It just happened. It was not a conscious decision. I first thought of a title, Three's Company. And then I decided the title is too common. One of my friends wore a T-Shirt that said: All I want is Everything. Is there a problem? I felt it goes well with my film, she says.
 
"It's a film in a film. I have wanted to do the Film Appreciation course in FTII, Pune, for a long time but haven't been able to do it since one requires a month's leave from work. That had been looming large in my mind so I made the three protagonists meet during the course," says Shital.

'Jhansi was the first to support this project'

For such a novel theme and a debutant director, finding a producer must have been tough.

Jhansi says, "Initially we wanted to find a producer for her. But when we realised it's in English and directed by a woman debutant director, we were worried. 

"I've seen people struggling with scripts. I felt we should put in the initial resources. Rekha (Pappu) came on board and said she would support it and we budgeted accordingly."

"Jhansi was the first to support this project," acknowledges Shital. "She kept saying if you get a third person, they'll want you to change it. This is your dream, do it."

Since the two women had worked together on TV shows, they know each other well.

'We found one girl through our dietician, another on Facebook and the third through a friend'

Jhansi and Shital didn't want known or established faces for the film so they scouted for newcomers.

"We looked in colleges, coffee shops, on Facebook and even through our friends at Page 3 parties.

"Many hopefuls came, listened to the script and did photo shoots, but things didn't work out. Maybe they thought the film wouldn't take off. 

"Another factor was the language. The way Shital wanted them to speak the language was also a hindrance in finding people," says Jhansi. 

They finally found the three girls to play protagonists.

"We found one girl through our dietician, another on Facebook and the third through a friend. All the three girls -- Sampada Harkara, Sagari Venkata and Iantha Mitchell -- suited their characters and finally things fell in place," say Jhansi and Shital.

The well-known actor-activist Amala Akkineni does a cameo in the film.

'We had a month-long rehearsal on my terrace'

For Jhansi and Rekha, producing the film on a shoe-string budget was fraught with challenges.
 
"We had a month-long rehearsal on my terrace. All the girls would come in after college or work. These rehearsals later helped me plan the scenes. Lot of people gave their places for the shoot. We were given the CESS (Centre for Economic and Social Studies) premises, JNTU (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University) and restaurants, Our Place and Jal Vihar," says Jhansi.

Shooting the film took just 10 days as everything was planned meticulously.

"Our DOP Shyam Prasad Vasili shot the film in Canon 5 D but it looks as if it is shot on Red," says Shital.

Shravan Katikaneni is the editor and Parsa Pahlevan Zade scores the music.

'We want to make it a travelling film'

Shital has been doing a lot of research on film festivals.

All I Want Is Everything has been on the festival circuit in India at the South Asian Film Festival, Goa, Third Eye Film Festival, Mumbai, and Vibgyor International Film Festival, Kerala.

"We want to make it a travelling film," say the makers.