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00:00Hi, this is Manjusha and I'm the entertainment editor. Today I'm here with two talented talents
00:14from Bollywood, the Sohali Khan and Nushat Barucha, who's here for a very, I wouldn't
00:19call it gender specific storyline, but a horror movie that deals with a very grim topic, but
00:25in the most entertaining, but not exploitative manner. So that's what I loved about the first
00:30part. Perhaps you can tell us like, you're taking the installment forward. Nushat, you
00:34have been a part of the original. Soha, you're a part of the second chapter. What appealed
00:39to you both about joining this movie? For me, part two of this film really works because
00:45it's very, very organic to the part one. It comes from the same world. It comes from the
00:50same roots. We have not just done it because the first one did well. So hey, let's do a
00:55sequel to it. That was never the intention. And in fact, on one of the flights coming
01:01back from a promotion or going to a promotion of Chori 1 is when Vishalsa sitting next to me
01:06just gave me an idea that, hey, what about this as part two? Like, how about we deal with
01:11this in part two? And I looked at him and I was like, yeah, yeah. Like there was a unanimous
01:18resounding yes from me and the producer saying yes. Because it keeps the part one's
01:24spirit alive. It keeps its genuinity alive. It still is from the same world, from the same
01:29milieu. It's just going a step higher by addressing another evil practice. But still in the same
01:38storyline, in the same characters and in the same world, we have not uprooted it from part
01:43one at all, which is why when you see a trailer, there's so much of part one still in it. Because
01:47we're trying to tell you to go back to what you felt then and what you experienced then and just
01:52pick it up from where you left off. Because it was so organic and so real. That's why I think part
01:58two works for me so much. And that's why I think we're all here talking again four years later.
02:03I play the baddie. I have been saying this in interviews. I'm quite bad, actually. It's just people
02:07don't know. And now they will know just how bad I am. And Kunal feels like people will sympathize
02:13with him now. He's like, guys, I'm telling you, this is my life. She looks very sweet, but she's
02:18not. But it's great fun. It's great fun, I think, to explore your dark side. It's great fun to put on
02:24all of that. I mean, it's not fun, but it's exciting to, I think, put on the prosthetics and
02:31the makeup and the costume. And then to be lit like that, because you get so much support,
02:36if done properly, when you're playing the horror in a horror film, from sound and costume and design
02:43and all of that. And I think I was very well supported in this film. So I'm excited about
02:49it coming out in a few hours.
02:51Right. So far, there's always a caricature of negative roles. Like if you play the villain,
02:56you become a bit campy in horror films. Look at Scream, for instance. I mean, it's like a pop
03:01cultural milestone for all of us. But at any point, were you also very, very aware that
03:06it shouldn't look very caricature-ish or campy?
03:09Absolutely. Absolutely, I was. And this was my main concern is that I really want to do
03:15this. And in my head, I imagine it like this. And in your head, you're telling me you imagine
03:19it like this. And you're showing me all these beautiful, you know, visuals and stills and
03:24references. But will you be able to execute this? And you know, or is it going to be cringe?
03:29Am I going to have to like, not be in the country when this releases? And I'm here. The fact
03:34that I'm here means that, you know, I'm proud to be associated with this film. And I think that
03:38they've done a fantastic job in terms of really elevating the idea of horror in India, of pure
03:46horror, which is not, you know, mixed with any other kind of genre, which is also trying to test
03:53boundaries and introduce the Indian audience to a different kind of villain, you know, who doesn't
03:59look like your ordinary churail and, you know, with like the long open hair and, you know,
04:04all of those things that we flying around that we see. This is slightly different and slightly,
04:10for lack of a better word, perhaps international or modern or, but yet the story is very rooted
04:14in folklore, in some of the practices that we've been practicing over generations, which
04:20are unspeakable, which we think happen in far off places, or perhaps are fictionalized,
04:25but they're not. They happen very, very close to us. But I'm just so happy that series and
04:31movies are now tackling like dark subjects. Look at adolescence. I don't know. It's about
04:35toxic masculinity, for instance. Simple. But even I think Indian shows are trying to do it
04:41in their way. We can't. I mean, there shouldn't be any comparisons. We're trying. Do you think
04:46you're taking one for the women's team without being very didactic, you know, and because this
04:51is a genre that lends itself to smashing patriarchy. You can say a lot of like crucial things without
04:56being very boring or maybe even entertaining. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that, you know,
05:01as Vishal Furia, who's our director, keeps saying that I'm presenting this as a horror because it's
05:06more digestible as a horror. You can imagine that these things are happening in a fictionalized
05:10place with fictionalized characters who are perpetrating these crimes. But actually, these are our
05:14neighbors. These are people in our family. There's a sense of, you know, like even if it's something
05:19from casual misogyny to normalizing a male preference, you know, things like that are
05:25happening all the time. So I feel that horror is very effective also because it stays with
05:30you. Much after the film ends, you are haunted by images. So, of course, you can have horror
05:37for the sake of horror. You can have a slasher film where you're just exploring visuals and
05:42sound and making people feel uncomfortable. But I think if you have at the end of it also
05:46some kind of social message and if you have actually a real social evil that exists and
05:52if you play on that without really, you know, you're not actually giving people a lesson.
05:57You're not saying, sit down and look at these statistics. You're presenting it in a way that
06:01you're just blown away by, oh, this is really scary and what's going to happen to her now
06:06and, oh my God, what's happening to her? You know, you're just absorbed in the plot and
06:11yet you come away from it. And if you think about it, you think, okay, these are actually
06:14things that are happening and where do I fit in in all of this? What can I do about this?
06:19And what we find, I think, with horror is that women are so instrumental to horrors as
06:23victims and as perpetrators. You know, and especially when you see in Chori 2, both the victim and
06:29the antagonist are women. And I think that's because our moral fabric is generally put on
06:36the shoulders of women. We are the ones who are asked to be good and we are the ones who are
06:41labelled as bad. And so when it comes to taking forward some kind of moral ethos, it becomes
06:48told through women.
06:49Right.
06:50You know, so I feel like that is something that is interesting. And I thought about actually
06:55only once I became a part of a horror film.
06:57Has this movie altered both your views on perhaps mothering or like you said, the burden of like
07:04expectations is always on the woman. I mean, you raise such a 13-inch question. Soha, you're
07:09a mom yourself and Nushrat, I'm hoping you have nieces as to say you see young kids as well.
07:14Has this altered the concept of motherhood?
07:18No, I mean, I'm not a mother yet. But yes, of course, I feel that towards my nieces, my
07:23nephews, even my younger sisters, even as in my cousins who've had children late in
07:29life. But I just I feel like, I mean, so I can tell you this a little better because
07:35she's a mother herself. But even without really being a mother, just getting to know of how
07:41the world is viewing this, how the world is not talking about it or generalizingly and
07:47normalizingly talking about and addressing it is a little, it's a little scary. I mean,
07:52if you ask me today, I would definitely be scared to have a child be brought in a world
07:58like this today, where I'm only questioning and fighting and, you know, bringing up topics
08:04which I didn't think really existed. I mean, it's a little shocking even to me that this
08:10is a problem that's persistent and pretty much there, not just in some rural village
08:14somewhere. It's there in gated communities. It's there in our in our cities also. And
08:20then in part two, you're robbing her of something else. And it's something Vishal sir said, which
08:24is so true, that in part two, the kid is only five years old, but she's going to grow up.
08:30And the more the girl grows up, there are more things done to her. When she's 13, say
08:34where she's 16, say where she's 18. So if there's scope of three, four, five in terms
08:40of a film, but do you understand in terms of the fact that the atrocities and the crimes
08:44that are committed, they are still very much there. And it scares me, it scares me to be
08:49a mother. It scares me to like see my niece growing up or my sisters dealing with issues
08:54and things which I'm like, I'm so sorry, I don't know how to, I don't know how to operate
08:59around this. I don't know how to say that, yeah, you know what, let's, but I'm still I'm
09:04still having said that I'm still glad that we're still at least talking about it. We're
09:08still in a place to call it out. We're still in a place to say that, forget everybody else,
09:13I'm going to speak about this. And I guess that's also a great freedom and liberation to
09:17have being in 2025. And having a film, Chhori One that was accepted by audiences at a place
09:25where I'm thinking it's mothers only who connected to it, right? I think it's the women who really
09:29associate with it and said that, hey, yes, you know, we are questioned about, is it a
09:35girl or a boy? We are, there is that question happening. I mean, I have a friend of mine who
09:39said when, when one of his wives was one of his friends wives is giving birth, he was
09:45there. And one of the relatives very categorically just said that, oh, beta ni hua, like, oh,
09:51shit. So like the whole excitement of a child happening just died because it was a girl.
09:56And it was just so disheartening to like cure that. I certainly feel happy that my life and
10:02my daughter's life has been untouched by practices like this. And I'm very grateful to, as I've been
10:08saying, my four mothers, because they have fought battles in within my family itself. You know,
10:14like I've said, my great grandmother got married at the age of nine, and she had a child at the age
10:18of 13. My grandmother had to fight to study an MA. My mother, you know, had to explain her whole life
10:25how her husband allowed her to work. You know, a lot of people commented on her choice of marriage
10:30partner because he was from another religion, etc, etc. So I feel like those are battles that luckily
10:37within my family have been fought hard and have been won. And my job is to constantly remind my
10:43daughter of how privileged she is, but also to remind her that they that it is very important
10:49to stand up for women around her, because women should support women. And to realize that just
10:56within India, there's so much disparity, there's so much inequity. And surely we should feel with the
11:02burden of privilege comes a certain sense of responsibility towards helping other people to
11:06come to that level, so that all of us can at least stand on the same platform, so that all of our
11:12voices can be heard. So to speak for others, you know, so I think that is my struggle, when these
11:18children who have so much privilege, to remind them that this is privilege, and not everyone's life is
11:23like this. What was the most fun bit of acting in a horror film? Because I feel it's not as fun as it
11:29looks. Like, are you working on like intangible emotions and creatures, etc? How difficult is it to look
11:37convincingly, like, in your case, Soha really evil and Nushat adequately scared, yet fierce?
11:45I think Nushat was having great fun. I think her favorite scene was being whipped about like 135
11:50times. It's amazing that two women are spearheading a horror genre without any, it just gives me it's
11:57like a reflected pride for me. I am playing the gender card here. I'm extremely proud that
12:02both of you are spearheading this. No, Manjushat, I just said it in an interview before this, it's so
12:07amazing that I'm on this side of the conversation saying, hey, this is not okay. And there is another
12:14woman on the other side of the conversation saying, no, but this is my pratha, this is my practice,
12:19it's my honor to do this. And I'm telling her, wake up, babe, you are committing a crime against
12:25our own, like women, like our own, like gender. How can you do that? And I love the fact that I'm
12:32not fighting a man. I'm not questioning a man, I'm fighting another woman who's fallen prey to this
12:38conditioning or this conviction that Oh, no, we're doing it for the betterment or something. It's,
12:45it's a practice has been followed. You know, I like the fact that he's used to women on opposite
12:50ends to say something which is a male patriarch run thing. It's so amazing that they've used us
12:56to do that like that. So I just I love the whole idea. How about you, Soha, two women spearheading,
13:02like you said, there is this thing about women being women's worst enemy and all that, even at a
13:06workplace, a corporate job itself, you know, why can't women get get along? I'm like, you know,
13:12so that we have to fight that on a daily basis. But in this case, you guys are really in arms.
13:16What do you think, Soha? Is it great to see two women point it out?
13:21Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm in my life, I've been surrounded by very strong women.
13:26And the whole concept was inverted for me, because my mother went to work and my father
13:31stayed at home. So that whole the whole idea of like the gender roles has been subverted in my life
13:36for a long time. But I feel like this, you know, when you look at the poster, when you look at the
13:42trailer, and you see these two roles, I think that it is fascinating that, you know, especially when
13:48you we know this, I really feel that it is the women who some I mean, you know, they take forward
13:55a value system, because I really feel the children learn more from their mothers than they do from
14:00their fathers, we have so present in their lives. And whatever our conditioning is, is absorbed by them.
14:05So even if our conditioning is reflecting some kind of patriarchy that gets absorbed by them,
14:09and therefore it gets furthered. And therefore, it is very important, I think, as women, to stop
14:15that, to change that and to say, we don't need to be tools in someone else's, you know, grand plan.
14:21Thank you so much, guys. Have a great day. Bye bye.
14:24Bye.