While Hyderabadi girl Rucha Humnabadkar was studying at St Francis College for Women in the city, she had worked with filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor on Hyderabad Blues, Rockford and Bollywood Calling, as an assistant director and art director. Now the stalwart has gone on to achieve bigger appreciation for herself.
Her film For Here or To Go? has created a huge impact at the 17 film festivals it has been screened at so far. It is an attempt to humanise the immigration debate by focusing on the millions who live in uncertainty while striving to achieve the ‘American Dream’, and the adverse effects of America’s immigration policies on its global competitiveness. The movie stars Ali Fazal, Rajit Kapur, Omi Vaidya, Melanie Chandra, Samrat Chakrabarti and Amitosh Nagpal. Mike Krieger, co-founder, Instagram, too has appreciated Rucha’s work and said, “I feel like it’s a story not just worth telling, but now that it’s been told, it is worth seeing.”
Scene from the movie For Here or To Go
The story is about an aspiring Indian tech entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley, Vivek Pandit (played by Ali Fazal), who finds himself unexpectedly battling the bizarre American immigration system to keep his dream alive or prepare to return home forever.
“I was introduced to the writer Rishi S. Bhilawadikar through a common friend. I could really connect to the script as I have also dealt with immigration struggles while trying to build a home in the US,” says Rucha, who is currently working as a web designer with a Silicon Valley company in California.
Her husband Aaron Sakowski, who works at Google, is also the executive producer of the movie. “He’s so amazing — he used to cook dinner for the crew when we crashed at my house,” she says, adding, “The experience of shooting the film has been rewarding, as I had a fantastic crew. I now want people to watch the movie and connect through it. Like Mira Nair said, ‘If we don’t tell our stories, no one else will’.”
Speaking of the challenges she faced, Rucha says, “When you are an independent filmmaker, you don’t have time and money. This one day, we had an important shoot at someone’s house and he backed out at the last moment. We had to knock on several doors before we could get it done. The movie is set for a theatrical release on March 31 in the US, and will be released in India after that. Although I’ve been working on this movie for 4-5 years, with the current scenario in the US, I think it is a timely release. The film is a celebration of the contributions of Indians in the US. I want people here to be more empathetic to the minority communities.”
For the film, Rucha spent time interviewing several San Francisco Bay area Indian immigrant families, young professionals, and students, to capture the stories of the diaspora. “Scenes around topics that stood out as having a community that would rally around it were enhanced at the script stage, so that diverse immigrant groups could each see reflections of their personal stories featured strongly in the slice-of-life panorama,” says Rucha.
She loves Hyderabad and visits the city every year. “I want to get my six-month-old son Riaan this time, as my parents want to meet him,” Rucha concludes.
