Reema Kagti (Film Director)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Reema Kagti

• Does Reema Kagti smoke?: Not Known

• Does Reema Kagti drink alcohol?: Yes  

• As a kid, she used to write short stories. Her first earning was ₹25 when she sold one of her stories to Tinkle Magazine.

• Kagti was 9 when she bunked her school to watch Salaam Bombay in theatre. It was then she decided to become a filmmaker.

• Her grandfather was a businessman but had acted and produced some Assamese movies. When she first told her family about her dream of becoming a director, they were horrified by the idea. But went on supporting her later.

• She tried getting herself admitted in Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), but faced rejections thrice.

• When she was pursuing her diploma in Social Communications Media, she had to do an internship as a part of her course. So she decided to do it under a filmmaker rather than working with the TV production house.

• She was just 24 when she got a chance to do her internship under Rajat Kapoor as an assistant director in his film “Private Detective”. Though the film did not release, she got to learn a lot while working with Kapoor and that’s how she joined the film industry.

• Initially, she had worked with many renowned directors as an assistant director in movies like Farhan Akhtar‘s  “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Chahta Hai”, Ashutosh Gowariker‘s “Lagaan”,  Honey Irani’s “Armaan” and Mira Nair‘s “Vanity Fair.”

• She has a close association with Excel Entertainment (an Indian film studio created by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani in 1999) as she shares good professional and personal terms with Zoya Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar.

• During the shoot of her film Talaash (Starring Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, and Aamir Khan), she lost her father. She personally feels that shooting Talaash had been a difficult task for her because of many reasons, one being her father’s loss.

• In 2012, she was touted as one of the hottest women film directors of India.

• She is very concerned about the place she has come from. In an interview, she said, “I do feel that this part of the country is forsaken by everyone, the situation is bad politically and economically. There are 40 different terrorist groups in that region. We have to acknowledge the enormity of the problem. As someone who is from there, I feel I owe it to them to focus on it.’’ Hence in 2013, she organized a film festival in Guwahati along with filmmakers like Zoya Akhtar. She held a short film contest as a part of the festival to help in bringing the region into focus. “With the new technology available anyone can shoot their story on their phones and laptops and show it to the world. They should be heard. I feel like I should help them do that. For a region that is politically so involved, it’s important for personal stories to come out. Not objective, but subjective accounts.’’ she said.

• She believes that one of the best teachers for her has been her DVD Player as she has watched many movies while growing up.

• Her directorial movie “Gold” (2018) starring Akshay Kumar, Farhan Akhtar, and Kunal Kapoor is based on India’s first Olympic gold medal in hockey after India’s Independence. Former Indian Hockey team captain Sandeep Singh himself trained the actors for the movie.