Saali Mohabbat director Tisca Chopra slams Bollywood as ‘very afraid,’ says Work has become extremely shallow

Tisca Chopra also recalled how Saali Mohabbat almost led to her divorce with husband when trying to write the project together - Everything she said.

Tisca Chopra

Shaheen Irani

Last Updated: 08.35 PM, Jan 03, 2026

Anurag Kashyap made headlines for quitting Bollywood after criticizing how the industry tries to play it extremely safe, which is not something he relates to. Tisca Chopra, who made her directorial debut with Radhika Apte’s Saali Mohabbat, felt something similar and called it out loud during her recent interview. The actress-turned-filmmaker spoke about how work has become ‘extremely shallow’ since the industry members started playing it ‘extremely safe.’ Here’s everything she said…

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Tisca Chopra speaks her mind about working in current scenario in Bollywood

Tisca Chopra felt that the problem began with not allowing the writers to nourish. The Saali Mohabbat director told Bollywood Bubble, “The problem is that we are watering the fruits and not the roots, which is writing. The work has become extremely shallow. I'm not saying one can't do commercial or comedy cinema, but it starts with the writing. You need to give time to your writers and freedom to brainstorm ideas. We don't nourish writers.”

Stating that everyone is ‘very afraid’ and nobody wants to take a chance, the filmmaker stated that the industry does the same thing with a little twist. “The audience isn't entertaining it anymore. Whenever you bring something new with conviction, people accept it,” she added.

Saali Mohabbat almost led to Tisca Chopra’s divorce

Radhika Apte and Divyenndu in a still from Saali Mohabbat

Tisca Chopra made her directorial debut with Saali Mohabbat. She revealed that writing the project with her husband led to a huge clash, to the extent that the couple was on the verge of divorce. She confirmed the same to Mid-Day by stating, “We almost got divorced writing it. So the yin and yang came together nicely in the script.” The two almost were told to drop the project, but continued working on it anyway. The result was that they found mid-way and thus, Saali Mohabbat was born. Despite her finding a solution for the writing aspect, Tisca found it hard to direct the project given the choices and having to make one decision.

Starring Radhika Apte, Anurag Kashyap, Divyendu Sharma, Sauraseni Maitra and Anshumaan Pushkar, Saali Mohabbat is streaming on Zee5 (OTTplay Premium).

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