Ambiecka Pandit, Nimisha Sajayan share how Babita Singh Reporting created a cop bogged down by patriarchy | Interview
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
In Indian films, the female cop is often wrapped in a hyper-masculine mould—performing slow-motion walks, delivering booming dialogues, and displaying flawless, heroism. But Prime Video’s soon-to-release movie, Babita Singh Reporting takes a drastically different and human path. It introduces us to Babita, a woman who is not a ready-made superhero, but a person struggling to find her footing in a system designed to keep her small. The movie’s team talks about going down this road less taken in a candid chat with Hindustan Times.
Adding to this, Babita Singh Reporting stars Nimisha Sajayan. Not a ‘male cop in a female body’ The representation of women in uniform has suffered from a lack of genuine female perspective in Indian films. The movie’s executive producer Sudip Sharma highlights this pitfall: “A trick that we miss when men write female cops is that they basically write male cops but as females. I think that was what was so refreshing about this script and this movie that it doesn’t do so.” He says Babita Singh Reporting embraces a lived reality of a woman navigating a patriarchal workspace.
Meanwhile, At the heart of the movie is a character trying to the daily life. Director Ambiecka Pandit explains that the decision to portray Babita this way was deliberate. “She is trying to transition into being a real cop. But patriarchy at work is also keeping her down,” she notes. “It was a conscious call to present this character as someone who wasn’t striving. She is trying to find her voice in her professional and personal life.”
Notably, Babita's struggle is not just professional; but also personal. She is bound by shackles of domesticity even when she wears the khaki. “I was very conscious of the fact that Babita is essentially a woman first, and that she is playing roles,” Ambiecka shares. “At the beginning of the movie, she is a wife, a daughter-in-law, and a cop. She is identified by the roles. She has forgotten who Babita is because she has suppressed it so much.”
As per the latest buzz, For star Nimisha Sajayan , the connection to the character was instantaneous. “The first reaction was ‘I have met so many Babys in my life’,” she recalls, referring to Babita’s nickname in the movie. “And once the character resonates, like this one, it is easier to get into her shoes.” Nimisha is a Malayali who grew up in Mumbai, very far removed from the small-town Madhya Pradesh setting of the movie and her character. “But the emotions are universal, the challenges are universal,” shares the star. To her, Babita is not an anomaly; but the everyday woman we pass on the street. As Ambiecka puts it: “The beauty of this movie is that she isn’t the typical female cop that you have seen. She is struggling there, and we are hoping that the earnesty in the struggle is what people will resonate with.”
In further updates, Directed by Ambiecka Pandit, written by Amita Vyas, and executive produced by Paatal Lok creator Sudip Sharma, Babita Singh Reporting stars Nimisha Sajayan in her lead role as Babita, joined by Barun Sobti and Anshumaan Pushkar. The movie will rollout on Prime Video on August 28.
On top of that, Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Movie Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world. Read More
Source: Hindustan Times