Ruchika Oberoi

The writer/director of the critically appreciated genre-defying movie Island City Click to look into! >> Read More... , Ruchika Oberoi is a Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) former student. Unlike the young directors making it big in the Bollywood industry with big commercial successes, Ruchika is a late-bloomer but certainly not tilted toward the commercial cinema; at least, for the moment. Ruchika represents the middle-class woman, stepping onto the streets of Mumbai with a dream in her heart. She recalls living in the middle-class communities and says she enjoyed staying amidst of them and in a way they have helped her understand the metropolitan city much better.

The deranged race for success and monetary bliss in the metropolitan has lead to alienation and isolation says the talented woman Ruchika. Ruchika Oberoi is married and she lives with her husband who she claims is her muse for her writing. Before directing her debut film, Ruchika gained experience working in the television industry. Coming from boarding school Darjeeling and having been an English Graduate from Venkateshwara Collge, Delhi, she studied filmmaking from St. Xavier’s, Mumbai. Later she joined FTII for which she has high regards. She claims that she is drawn to writing about the chaotic and racket filled lifestyle of the people around her, as she feels strongly that even though Mumbai city is so thickly crowded, people still feel lonely.

She always wanted to lean toward dark comedy of life and she draws inspiration from her experiences in the city. She had previously donned the role of an assistant director for the movie Chutkan Ki Mahabharat which bagged National Award. However, she says that movie making and the whole process associated with it was alien to her and she started learning the hard way. The idea for her debut movie Iceland City (Hindi) was consummated during 2008-09 and her husband shares partial credit for it. She completed the three-fold story by 2009 and was part of the Screenwriters Lab, Venice and also Film Bazaar (Goa) in 2012; which emerged a winner of FEDORA at the 72nd Venice Film Festival in 2015.

Iceland City, which runs to 110 minutes has a brilliant cast of Vinay Pathak Vinay Pathak is a well known face in the field of >> Read More... , Brick Lane fame Tannishtha Chattergy and Amruta Subhash For Marathi actress Amruta Subhash it was relative >> Read More... in the lead. The film was produced by National Film Development Corporation and directed by Ruchika herself. But the movie has an impeccable screenplay and it is due to the ace Director of Photography Sylvester Fonseca. Ruchika’s movie has three stories with hardly any direct connection with each other but they have the same undercurrent of Mumbai’s lifestyle and changes in the society in it. The segments which are named as Fun Committee, the Ghost in The Machine and The Contact are three different stories from different walks of life, each depicting the culmination of freedom and control in a lightly woven story of the three stories.

Ruchika says that she aimed at subtly put together stories of some realistic stories which people can connect to. Ruchika has no interest whatsoever in writing scripts in the typical masala Bollywood movies as she has a different take on things. Her intent is clearly evident in her work which talks about the man’s desire for erecting gigantic buildings and confining one into one of those and trying to redefine freedom. Her movie was well appreciated at the Venice Film Festival which highlighted her attempt to bring about nuances of absurdism in the realistic form in her movie. Ruchika is yet to release the film in India and she hopes to do so in 2016.

She admits having found difficulty in finding financers for her movie. She believes that Iceland City can be seen as a commercial movie as she feels that the audience can connect to it and identify themselves to it. She is a strong believer in hard work and making movies which stand out from the commercial box office formula movies. She has two projects that she seems to have been working on and says that she will make them when she gets the good financiers and a right team. Ruchika is also of the opinion that India is making progress in independent movie making as she finds many intriguing stories from the youth. She will certainly be remembered for her unique take on things.