‘Women will always be the central gaze of my films’: Cannes winner Payal Kapadia

Indian independent filmmaker Payal Kapadia created history at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival by becoming the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix—the second-most prestigious award, for her debut feature film All We Imagine as Light.

Released in theatres across the country earlier last week, Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light was honoured with an eight-minute-long standing ovation at the Cannes. Not just that, her debut feature film is the first Indian movie, in the last 30 years, to have been selected for the Cannes main competition. Exploring the lives of two nurses in the City of Dreams, All We Imagine as Light highlights Kapadia’s unique storytelling and artistic vision. 

But this isn’t the first time that the Mumbai-based filmmaker has had the spotlight on her at the film festival. Earlier, her documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing won the Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) for Best Documentary at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, in 2021. 

Over a virtual conversation with YS Life, Kapadia sheds light into her approach to filmmaking, her inspirations, and shares advice for aspiring independent filmmakers. 

Edited excerpts from the conversation: 

YS Life [YSL]: ⁠⁠Your work, especially in the case of All We Imagine as Light, often blurs the line between documentary and fiction. How do you approach this hybrid style, and what draws you to it?

Payal Kapadia [PK]: I really like this hybrid style. I'm very obsessed with films that mix fiction and non-fiction. For me, when non-fiction comes along with fiction,  it somehow makes the latter more truthful…it gives the sense that perhaps this is also reality. And that is for me an interesting thing to sort of walk the line of.

YSL: ⁠Memory and personal history also seem to play significant roles in your films. How do  personal elements shape your films’ narratives?

PK: It's very organic. I think that sometimes there are questions within you, and about the world that you have, and that's what you get drawn to make a film on. 

For me, one of the self reflexive questions that I had was about how I have judged my female friends in the past, sometimes wrongly, and felt really terrible about it. I questioned my own internalised misogyny on why I had this gaze. So that was one of the main themes of the film (All We Imagine as Light) that came from that self reflection. 

Then it's also about many questions about the city—gentrification, and the contradictions of Mumbai that I always think about. I think it's just what bothers you and what keeps you awake at night that finds its way into films. 

YSL: How do you balance artistic expression with the responsibility of portraying weighty topics around social and political unrest?

PK: Every time, in every film, I try to address this differently. With my last film (A Night of Knowing Nothing), it was more on the nose. With this film (All We Imagine as Light), it's a little bit more subtle, with the story being the main theme, and then the other themes coming in through the story itself. 

Most of it is just trial-and-error…I'm always figuring out how to keep my social and political themes, but the storytelling keeps changing from film to film. As a filmmaker, I'm always learning and exploring. 

YSL:⁠ ⁠How do you stay inspired? Are there specific filmmakers or writers who have influenced your style?

PK: Vinod Kumar Shukla. He is an Indian writer, and I love his style. 

I am always wondering how to have a style…Like in writing, certain writers have a style. Can we have that kind of method in films too? Can there be a filmmaker's style? I'm always interested in how your storytelling can be unique in a world where everything is becoming homogeneous. How to keep your own voice and your style, something that is your own. So I think reading Vinod Kumar Shukla's books, I always felt that he talks about so many important themes. 

YSL:⁠ ⁠Independent filmmaking often comes with its challenges in terms of funding and distribution. How have you navigated these aspects throughout your career?

PK: Yeah, it's true. It’s not easy to get financing to make films…it's not easy for anybody. But everybody finds their own route. For me, I wanted independence on the themes of the films that I wanted to make and on how I will make it. So that's why I only looked for soft financing, where the financing didn't depend so much on the story or themes of the film…I mean that the returning of those funds were not part of the making of the film. 

I went about looking for government grants from other countries and I encourage all young filmmakers to just keep their eyes out for funding available in other countries because it's up for grabs!

YSL:⁠ ⁠Looking ahead, what kind of stories are you eager to tell? Are there particular themes or styles you’re excited to explore in future projects?

PK: I think that women will always be the central gaze of my films…the stories will always be told from their point of view. And I hope that I can continue to tell these stories in my city (Mumbai) and continue to question the things about the city that really bother me. 

YSL: What are some of your advice for aspiring independent filmmakers?

PK: I think that a lot of aspiring filmmakers sometimes think a lot about the end goal of the film…So that they can send their films to the national awards, or film festivals. But that should never be their aim. 

One should always focus on what it is that they truly want to do. What is it that truly keeps them awake at night? What is it that they really want to put down on paper and make into a film? Because if they don't have that motivation, then any external motivation won't sustain them till the end of the journey.