Kiran Rao recalls days of struggle, not making enough money for rent

Before becoming a successful filmmaker, Kiran Rao worked as an assistant director on multiple projects, including critically-acclaimed, Oscar-nominated movie Lagaan. In a new episode of podcast Cyrus Says, Kiran Rao revealed that her early days as an AD were quite challenging.

Scrambling to make ends meet

When Kiran Rao started in Mumbai, she was multitasking and juggling multiple jobs to survive the high cost of living in Mumbai. She said, “I was essentially a gig worker. I’d take on jobs as they came, working as long as they paid, then I’d scramble to find the next, all while stressing about whether my savings would last and if I could cover my rent.”

The host asked her about her work in Lagaan and how it must have been financially rewarding. The Laapataa Ladies director said, “Feature films didn’t pay. It was advertising that paid me the money to live in Mumbai. With Lagaan, the first AD system kind of started coming in.” She said that advertising gigs helped her pay for ‘expensive’ things like computers and a car.

‘Bought my first car at ₹1 lakh’

She recalled her experience of purchasing her first expensive thing, her first car. “I bought my car from my dad. He sold it to me for ₹1 lakh. Have you ever heard of that? My father was like, ‘This is the only way you will save money.’ We drove it from Bangalore to Mumbai on the newly-minted expressway.”

‘I was a minion’

The Dhobi Ghat director was candid about her exhausting experience as an AD on the set of Lagaan. With long, gruelling hours that started from 4:30 am to managing the cast’s hair and makeup and ensuring punctuality on the set, she described it as a ‘logistical nightmare.’ Rao had no agency and revealed, “I had no creative control. I was a minion. A general dogsbody.”

Ashutosh Gowariker-helmed Lagaan showed her the taxing aspects of working as an AD. She recalled working in a tense environment where she was constantly yelled at, even for the most trivial things like getting her senior’s coffee order wrong. However, Reema Kagti, another assistant director on Lagaan, always had her back. With just four assistant directors rushing to keep up on the massive outdoor set where everything was shot live, co-ordinating the shoots was stressful.

Kiran added that the boring wardrobe duty felt repetitive and mechanical and made her question her life choices, especially considering she had a master’s in communications from Jamia.

Kiran Rao made her director debut with Dhobi Ghat in 2010, and after 14 years, Laapataa Ladies marked her directorial comeback.