Exclusive! Mrs Undercover director Anushree Mehta: It's harder for a woman to be behind the camera

Watch Mrs. Undercover on OTTPlay.

Debutant director Anushree Mehta, who explores the genre of spy-comedy with her film Mrs Undercover, says that while it is great to see a change in the number of women behind the camera, navigating the patriarchal system is still hard.

When Anushree was asked about the biggest challenge she faced as a female filmmaker, she told OTTplay, "It is much more difficult to be a woman behind the camera, especially when you are a debutant director. I remember that many times Abir Sengupta (her business partner and one of the producers of the film) was told, 'Anushree is new. I hope you will be present on the film set'. I found it humiliating that our capability is based on gender."

She went on to add, "Having said that, there are many feminist men like Abir who firmly replied to those people, 'She is the writer and director of the film. Since the director is the captain of the ship, it does not matter if the producer is present on set or not. The director will be there and we submit to her vision'. I think women always need the support of men like him, who never question our talent simply based on gender," shared the filmmaker.

The story of Mrs Undercover a former undercover spy who solves the case of a serial killer who kills independent women. 

Radhika Apte plays the spy-turned-homemaker Durga, and according Anushree, the actress is very supportive of female filmmakers, and very convincingly embodies strong female characters.

Mrs Undercover also stars Rajesh Sharma, Sumeet Vyas, Laboni Sarkar, Biswajit Chakraborty, and Saheb Chatterjee. It will be available to stream on OTTplay and ZEE5 starting April 14.