Bollywood star Aamir Khan hosted a special screening of Oscar-winning director Megan Mylan’s latest film After My Garden Grows in Mumbai on Friday night.
Mylan, who won the Best Documentary (Short Subject) Oscar for her film Smile Pinki in 2009, about a girl who gets to smile after a free cleft-lip operation, returns to India to make another film, about a teenage girl Monika in rural Bengal who seeks independence by growing a tiny rooftop vegetable garden and avoids becoming a child bride.
The screening was attended by Bollywood stars including Kangana Ranaut, Imran Khan and his wife Avantika and Farhan Akhtar.
Mylan, an American, said she was encouraged to return to the country following the success of Smile Pinki.
“I am attracted to ideas of social change and stories about people who are going through intense life-defining moments. My movies are very solution-driven. I want there to be some hopefulness. Change is happening everywhere in India and documenting that is exciting,” she said.
The 10-minute-long documentary released on Friday in nine cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon and Hyderabad through PVR cinemas.
Mylan, whose film is helped by Sundance Film Institute in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has also found support from Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, Khan and fashion designer Sabyasachi.
The New York-based director shot some 10-hours of footage for the short film.
“I was shooting before and after Pinki and then I had a baby so short films are working really well for me right now. Each film is like a child for a director and this child left home early. Another great thing about short films is that there is an ease in sharing them. It is easy to tell people to watch short films,” she says.
Mylan, 45, says it is not always easy to bridge the language barrier but Monika was a surprise.
“When I was shooting Smile Pinki it was difficult. I was the only foreigner that Pinki and her mother had seen as they never left the village. But there is a lot that has changed in five years. Monika is very savvy and plugged to her cell phone constantly though she does not have enough credit to make calls.”
Mylan now plans to produce short stories on gender issues with the directors from India, Bangladesh and Nepal. She is also planning a documentary on how Japan cares for its elders.
The director started her career by working with an non-profit organisation Ashoka before turning to documentary making.
She has previously directed Lost Boys of Sudan, Batidania, Oscar-nominated Long Night’s Journey Into Day and Sing Faster. She recently completed Raca, a documentary on Brazil’s struggle for racial equality.
