Exclusive! Chitrangada Satarupa on BIFF: The festival offers a serious and receptive audience

Arvind Prasad’s Mariam received the Asian Cinema Fund of the Busan International Film Festival for its post-production work. The film was screened at the 27th festival in South Korea. The lead actress Chitrangada Satarupa took the opportunity to explore the festival and the seaside city. 

“I had very little time and a lot of things to do. There is an outstanding curation of films at the festival. On the other hand, the city has a lovely sea beach. There is a square in the city centre where you get delicious local street food. The weather is very pleasant. While I loved the touristy bit, I also did not want to miss the fascinating films available to watch at the festival,” she said. 

The world premiere of the film took place at the festival on October 6. On October 8, there was another screening. Chitrangada attended both screenings. Talking about the audience's reactions, she said, “It has been a new experience for me. The audiences here are shy and don’t scream or hoot. However, during the question-and-answer session, they brought out interesting aspects of the film. That shows the seriousness of the audience. They watched and brought out the intrinsic value of the film. I thoroughly enjoyed the session,” the actress said. 

Chitrangada reached Busan on October 5 and will soon be back. “I had very little time to explore the place. My hotel room was sea-facing and Kalki (Koechlin) and I took a trip to the sea beach twice. It was fun,” she said. Kalki attended the festival with her film Goldfish. Directed by Pushan Kripalani, the film also features Deepti Naval, Rajit Kapur, and others.    

Mariam delves into a number of social issues in India. Mariam, played by Chitrangada, is the breadwinner of her family. She becomes pregnant out of illegal surrogacy for money to look after her family. “The film will be screened in other festivals also. But I am sure it will be released on some public platform for our audience,” she said.