'Bad Girl' set in a milieu that I relate to: Director Varsha Bharath
Young Tamil filmmaker, all set to hit the Rotterdam Film Festival circuit, has no time for criticisms and controversies over her debut film trailer

All thirty-three-year-old newbie Tamil director Varsha Bharath wanted to do was to make a straight-from-the-heart, relatable, coming-of-age film with her debut directorial, Bad Girl.
A former assistant director of ace filmmaker Vetrimaaran, Varsha wanted to tell an extremely personal story of growing up as a South Indian girl in a conservative world grappling with chaotic inexplicable desires; being drawn to boys and to absolute freedom, and struggling to figure out what she truly wants from life.
She and her crew, largely made up of women and some ‘wonderful’ men to make the film set more ‘inclusive’, easily connected with the gamut of ‘growing up’ pangs the protagonist experiences in Bad Girl.
Controversy over teaser
However, the teaser of Bad Girl, which was presented by her producers, acclaimed filmmakers Vetrimaraan and Anurag Kashyap, has run into a controversy. It's being criticised for using a Brahmin girl to tell the story of a woman tussling with her sexual desires.
Draupathi director Mohan G Kshatriyan slammed the portrayal of a Brahmin girl's personal life in the film. “Bashing a Brahmin father and mother is old and not trendy. Try with your own caste girls and showcase it to your own family first,” he wrote on X. A hot debate raged on social media over the film.
Familiar world
Varsha, however, has a simple enough explanation.
Throwing light on why her character is set in a Brahmin household, Varsha in a conversation with The Federal over the phone, says: ”It’s very simple, I just wanted to tell a story based on my experiences. If I was doing a historical or a political thriller, I could have researched and set my character in another community. This is a human drama so it made sense for me to root the character in a world I am familiar with to allow me to tell an authentic story.”
Her family background makes the story “authentic” as much as possible, she adds.
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Bad Girl is all set to premier at the Rotterdam Film Festival and has been nominated in the fest's main competitive section.
An excited Varsha, who cannot wait to attend the festival to soak in a lot of films and interact with “cool filmmakers”, is not really in a mood to address this attack on her film. She is basking in the 'surreal' feeling that her film is to open at an international festival.
But Varsha slams a narrative being bandied about that she is being used as a tool by her producers to push their an anti-Brahmin agenda. “That is condescending, I am not someone that can be used to push any agenda,” she emphasises.
Young team
Instead, Varsha diverts the conversation to the making of ‘Bad Girl’, which she says is not another film “project”.
It has been put together by a young team brimming with passion and excitement, she shares.
“Our team on the film set was very young and keen to explore. We only put together people with passion. We went for people who were excited about the film rather than experience.”
Bad Girl traces the life of a girl from her adolescence all the way to her 30s. The character is played by actor Anjali Sivaraman (Cobalt Blue), who, according to Varsha, ably carried the film on her shoulders.
Growing up and learning
The film also portrays how a person is never done with growing up. “Coming of age is not only for teenagers, it applies to women in their 30s, 40s and even the 50s. You keep changing, don't you? You are not the same person you were in your 20s when you turn 30,” she says
Also, according to Varsha, in fiction, people learn from their mistakes and change. But in real life, it is different, she points out.
“There is no guarantee that people won't make the stupid mistakes they made in school again much later in life when they are older. It really has to with patterns in our behaviour which is very deeply entrenched in us,” she says.
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Comparison with Girls will be Girls
Asked about the similarities in her film's theme with Richa Chadha’s much-talked about co-production, Girls will be Girls, which received rave reviews at the MAMI Mumbai film festival last year, Varsha says the comparison is being made because both have a female protagonist and tackles coming-of-age issues.
In Girls will be Girls, currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, a teenager discovers desire and romance in her boarding school but her sexual awakening is disrupted by her attention-seeking mother.
Varsha says: "The milieu and the conflict my character deals with are different. Also, when two films are made by women, we try to compare and draw parallels. Having said that if you will look at Payal Kapadia's film, Girls will be Girls, Laaptaa Ladies, there is one thing in common we all share. We are all desperate to tell our stories."
These women filmmakers don't view films as a "project" and instead have a story, an idea and hunt down the right people to make the film work, she says.
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At the launch of the teaser of 'Bad Girl'
Women filmmakers
Of late, a lot more Indian women filmmakers are emerging on the international film festival circuit.
"Borders are opening up and women directors are getting to showcase their films abroad," admits Varsha. "We have alternate voices ringing really loud, while maintstream cinema continue to focus on men. Women make smaller films for they don't get big budgets that male directors get and therefore are forced to make arthouse films which go to festivals. That is where our market lies," she says.
But Varsha points out that she has not actually made an arthouse film. Bad Girl is not a festival film, it is more a commercial film which is meant to engage, she shares.
"But sadly, my movie is not considered mainstream because it is about a woman minus a man," she points out.
On mentors and Anurag Kashyap
When Anurag Kashyap saw a rough cut of Varsha’s film when he visited Chennai for Viduthalai 2 shooting, he loved it and wanted to be part of this somehow, she reveals narrating how the famous Bollywood director got on board.
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"When Anurag sir joined our film, it gave us a lot of momentum. He lights up a room when he walks in. He cannot stop smiling, its not just about giving my movie a lot of visibility. It’s good to be in the presence of a pure cinema lover, he just wants to help to maximise whichever films he likes. He’s a true advocate of cinema and he’s given that same energy to my film," she says.
Varsha, who has also worked with Tamil star Dhanush as an assistant writer, loves the films of Agnes Varda and Satyajit Ray. The closest she feels to a director closer home is Vishu, who did Tamil human dramas that were hugely popular in the 1980s and '90s.
Vetrimaaran, to her, is her mentor, from whom she learnt everything. “I love his movies but it feels like a cliche to say he is my idol,” she confesses.
A conversation
When Varsha set out to make her first film, all she wanted was to start a conversation on what it means for a girl seeking to break free to come of age in a messy world. The dialogues on social media she has triggered are not exactly what she expected.
Varsha is, however, not letting the negativity affect her and is focussed on her film opening at Rotterdam Film Festival.