Anuya Mhaiskar

Anuya Mhaiskar is an artist and homemaker from Powai, Maharashtra. Raised in a middle-class family settled in Nasik, Anuya was interested in fine arts from her childhood and studied Kathak extensively after her higher studies from Ruia College. After her marriage to the famous Mhaiskar family in Mumbai, she still followed her passion with a large interest since her spouse and in-laws were highly supportive of her interests. She is associated with the cultural and aesthetic institution in Mumbai known as ‘Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya’.

Her passion for art gained her the acquaintance of various veteran artists such as Sanjay Surkar Sanjay Surkar (19 August 1959 - 27 September 2012) >> Read More... , who is a renowned film director, especially dealing with Marathi films. In a conversation with Anuya, Sanjay happened to discuss the story of a script which he was working on at that time. It was inspired by the real-life incident of Aruna Shanbag who is currently battling with the government to gain permission for euthanasia. She has been in a coma for 36 years, and her family wishes for her death rather than a state of non-existent survival.

Sanjay’s story, though adapted from the Aruna case, was entirely different from the former in many ways since he had added several elements to make the fictional adaptation complete. It dealt with the relationship shared between a mother and a son after the mother meets with an accident due to which her hands and legs get paralysed. The mother wants euthanasia since she doesn’t want to be a trouble for anyone else, even though her family looks after her very well. The son in the story is torn apart by a different problem- since, on one hand, he wants his mother to live, whereas the only happiness that she wanted was death.

The story, which belonged to a category that most Marathi film goers were unaware of, deeply inspired Anuya, and she decided to produce it, becoming the first female Marathi film producer. She believes that while making the film, she experienced a connection between the film and the fine arts that she practised. The movie, titled ‘Sukhaant’ was released under the banner of ‘Sudha Productions’. Anuya wishes to make more movies which have an original theme so that the people can be made aware of the various predicaments that others undergo.