In 2021, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari announced that she will be directing a film that will chronicle the lives of Sudha Murthy and NR Narayana Murthy. Reacting to reports of how the film is still stuck in its nascent stage, in 2023, Sudha stated that there’s no development in that direction yet. Now, in an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Ashwiny broke the silence surrounding the biopic of the Murthy’s. “I’m directing a couple of films,” she told us while remaining tight-lipped about them. When prodded about the biopic, she said, “We’re still writing that. It’s taking far too long but I would love to tell their story.” Seems like Ashwiny wants to focus on her other production ventures before she gets down to taking the film on the floor. Talking about how she intends on ‘starting new conversations’ with those outings, she shared, “I’m producing a few films. We now have a tie-up with Tips. Ramesh (Taurani) ji’s daughter Jaya was the one who wanted me to partner with them. I got so many calls as this association came as a surprise since such partnerships usually happen between two men in positions of power. But this is how change happens. This is the kind of association that will allow us to tell more stories for and by women.” As for the Hindi film industry, it’s going through a box office crisis. Barring a Chhavaa and a Pushpa: The Rule, most films are struggling to drive in big footfalls. To add to that, the menaces of corporate bookings, paid reviews and manufactured presale figures are getting bigger with each passing Friday. Sharing her stance on it, Ashwiny remarked, “No one knows what’s working. We need to be questioning ourselves as to how willing we are to tell fearless stories that are commercially viable at the same time.” According to Ashwiny, conversations around a film’s box office figures and equating a film’s success with the number it makes has to stop. “I always wonder why every film needs to make Rs 100 crore. Why do we’ve a target-audience kind of an approach? We need to think as to what we can do to make sure that the audiences come back to cinema halls and resume collective viewing. The idea is to be able to make films for the big screen that’s also adaptable to OTT platforms,” she pointed out. The Bareilly Ki Barfi and Nil Battey Sannata maker further explained, “The narrative should change. It should be more story-led and focus more on the collective approach of cinema. If we upchange the approach and not make it all about money, we’ll start enjoying cinema more and stop critisicing films that don’t make a lot of money. Right now, it’s a race in terms of who will touch the Rs 100 crore mark first. For me, the idea is to make a loved film that becomes a profitable venture for the producer or the studio and doesn’t run into losses.”