After the film script is in place, the second most important decision for the director is always the casting. Mukesh Chhabra, the incredibly well known casting director but also my friend stepped in to help me find the incredible cast of Dear Maya. His support was invaluable even though I drove him quite mad.

Together, we mailed the script to Manisha Koirala; she wanted to read it before she engaged any further. She read the script overnight, and as luck would have it she loved it and texted me immediately that we would like to meet.

I met Manisha Koirala over at her house. I was nervous of course- she was and still is a legend, loved and worshipped by generations of moviegoers in India and abroad. Nearly every man in the nineties was in love with her at some point of his life. I understood that feeling, she was exquisitely beautiful but more importantly for me, I loved her fearless and unique choices in movies. Just from her choices alone, I knew Manisha would have character and a feisty and bright spirit that my film demanded.

I was right. The first time I met her, I immediately knew I had found the right partner for this film. Manisha loved the script; she had a thousand questions and listened very carefully to everything I had to say to the film. At that moment I did not know that she would be my greatest ally in the making of this film and I came to look upon her as a friend, an advisor, a confidant and someone I continue to be very grateful to have in my life.

Manisha’s character Maya in the film was a lady that had not stepped out of the house for twenty years, so Manisha was going to wear make up and a little bit of prosthetics that would make her look shabby, neglected and a lot older than she actually was. This was a brave choice because Manisha was coming back to cinema after a five-year cancer treatment. She could have chosen something more glamorous. But that was not her.

Manisha was very patient, very kind despite years of working in films and having done it all, she went through every scene with me and went out of her way to make the girls, both newcomers comfortable with her.

Through the entire making of the film, Manisha and I spent a lot of time discussing the script, but our conversations always spilled over into daily concerns like locations, production issues, budgets, delays typical to an indie production. She held my hand through a lot of the most challenging days on set. In her decades long career, she had seen and heard everything, every scam, every bullshit, every story, every trick, every delay and setback that had ever existed and was generous enough to help me deal with all of them.

When I look back on some of the set photos, I look like a completely burned, barely recognisable monkey, exhibiting erratic and paranoid behaviour that her baby (the film) was being threatened in some way. But I was so moved by Manisha’s and the rest of the crew’s baseless trust in me, that I would rather fall to the ground spent/dead than ever betray that trust.