In a country like india, where the representation of women in the fields of Science, technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is almost negligible, a woman solving tough Math problems in a fraction of a second on television is a big deal. More surprising when it was happening in the 1950s. Shakuntala Devi was the human-computer who won over the world with her sharp mind and ease in crunching numbers. So, a biopic on her life was obviously in the making.
Filmmaker anu menon took on the responsibility of telling Shakuntala Devi's exceptional story to the world through a film. Starring vidya balan, the film is set to premiere on amazon Prime Video on July 31. When I met Anupama for the first time, she asked me who I think can play Shakuntala Devi, I said Vidya. At that time, I didn't even know her personally. I always knew it was vidya Balan. We met her. She came on board quite in the beginning. She's always been what we've thought.
She really liked the angle. She really liked that it was told from the perspective of Shakuntala Devi's daughter. She was willing to go into places which are grey. She liked that we are not putting her on a pedestal and humanizing her story. She just found her very entertaining and a very fascinating character. I think she enjoyed the multifacetedness of the character. Sanya was the first actress we narrated the script to. To play someone against a very larger-than-life character is actually more difficult. First of all, we have vidya as Shakuntala Devi, and then you have to be the quieter character who stands up to this person. In many ways, it's more difficult.
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