PIONEERING CHANGE

In an exclusive conversation with Bazaar India, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari talks about her journey, the importance of scriptwriters and the changing world of OTT

- SMITA TRIPATHI

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is a writer, director and now a producer, basking as she is in the success of the Huma Qureshi-starrer Tarla and the Janhvi Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotrafilm Bawal. Right from the beginning of her career as a filmmaker, she has ventured into narrating stories that inspire change. Her films that include Nil Battey Sannata, Bareilly Ki Barfi and Panga, among others, have strong female protagonists who encourage the audience to follow their dreams, regardless of the circumstances they come from.

Harper’s Bazaar: You moved from advertising to directing films and now producing them. Could you take us through your journey?

Ashwiny Tiwari: “So I started working in advertising at Leo Burnett in the year 2000. Over a period of 16 years I worked with some of the best brains in the industry. I worked on Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) for nearly 12 years and one of the campaigns I worked on had a girl saying ‘Mubarak ho ladki huyee hai’ [Congratulations, it’s a girl]. It was about breaking barriers. That ad really resonated with me. I’ve always been very fluid in terms of my dreams and aspirations. I think all of us like to enhance ourselves in various capabilities. At one point I said to myself that I wanted to direct. I directed my first short film called What’s For Breakfast? and that won a National Award. I was still in Leo Burnett and I didn’t want to quit because I am a middle class girl who needed the job security. But the urge was there. At that time no one had really comprehended that a woman with a corporate job will just give up everything to enter Bollywood, of all things. The first shock came to my mother who asked me that what would happen to my having a secretary and jet-setting