The niece of actor and politician Raj Babbar and the daughter of film producer Kishan Babbar, 23 year old Kajri Babbar is gearing up to direct her very first full length British feature film with British producers Jacqui Miller, Craig Conway and Clare Cahill, adding sheen to her family legacy.
A period drama of 1940s, her next, The Burning Bride, revolves around the journey of a 15 teen year old Indian girl who marries a British officer and travels to England and her journey thereon. As a UK/India co-production, the film will be majorly shot in the city of Newcastle with key scenes in Mumbai , which are expected to commence shooting in mid 2019. The film will be written and directed by Kajri Babbar while Juuhi Babbar Sonii will turn first time co-producer on the project and will helm all production duties under Babbar Visuals for the shooting in India.
Kajri got popular with her short film Pardaa, about a girl who sacrifices her morals to make ends meet. It secured a semi-finalist spot at the 44th Student Academy Awards by Oscars and was screened at BAFTA Affliated Aesthetica Film Festival last year. The director-writer is screening her film at the inaugural Newcastle International Film Festival.
While a formal announcement will be forthcoming in the next days, Burning Bride was launched on 1st April at the closing day of the Newcastle Film Festival. Kajri is excited to be working with UK producers Clare Cahill and Craig Conway to bring this film to the screen.
Clare says, “I was very pleased to work with Kajri during her studies at the University, as she has a passion for storytelling and is already starting to develop a distinctive voice as a writer and director. When Kajri first pitched the idea for the film to me, at the end of her studies, I instantly recognised its potential as an important and unique story. I am looking forward to working with Kajri to develop the screenplay.”
Kajri quotes, “I will be putting in close to 18 months of research since the film highlights the British standpoint post Indian got declared independent. 20% of the film will be shot in India while the remaining will be shot in UK. The main lead will be a British actor while I’d like to have an Indian actress on board as a female lead.”
Another coup in Kajri’s credentials, is that her graduation film Khoj, a story inspired by true life events, which highlights the growing issue of wife abandonment and dowry torture faced by more than 100 young girls every year in India has been officially selected for the Shorts Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 Kajri Babbar has been an active member of Ekjute Theatre Group for the past 13 years and has since performed as the main lead in many successful plays such as “Ji Jaisi Apki Marzi”, “Suman Aur Sana”.
