MUMBAI, India

Although she assisted then future husband Aamir Khan on “Lagaan,” it was with “Dhobi Ghat” that Kiran Rao made her directorial debut in 2011. Clearly having a yen for such niche cinema, she has taken it upon herself to present writer-director Anand Gandhi’s off-beat film “Ship Of Theseus” and also rope in good friends UTV Motion Pictures to distribute this movie.

“I am not launching my own banner or turning producer,” she explained at a press Q & A session at the trailer launch of the film held at Mumbai’s PVR Juhu May 22. “I am too busy with Aamir’s company. But this film, which I caught at a special screening, was so beautiful that I had to present it. I think that such movies should be seen by wider audiences,” she explained. Kiran added that Aamir had loved the film and advised her to nurture it well as it was a special film.

“Ship of Theseus” has already made the festival rounds and won accolades at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. It is a layered story that encapsulates a blind woman who takes to photography as well as organ transplants as a business. Produced by entrepreneurs Mukesh Shah (who was present), Sohum Shah and Anita Shah, it has been written and directed by Anand Gandhi, who was earlier best known for being the writer of the highly popular Balaji Telefilm soaps “Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” and “Kahanii Ghar Ghar Kii.”

Gandhi stated that he was 19 when he started writing those soaps and has matured since. “I want to make personal kind of cinema like this,” he stated. Having directed two short films earlier, he does not see any paradox in genres. Asked by India-West whether any ‘soap’-like writing intruded into his script here and had to be warded off, Gandhi laughed and said that writing this film from the heart was far easier and that nothing like that had happened. He added that he had grown up on hardcore entertaining Hindi cinema, as his mother and grandmother were addicted to movies, magazines and everything to do with cinema.

Rao also added that she did not see why every kind of cinema, including the mainstream, should not be watched. Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV added that the trick lies in how to market these films so that they were profitable ventures for all — got the maximum audience and benefited everyone. “UTV has made films in the last few years that could not have been dreamt of ten or fifteen years earlier,” he mentioned.

The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a question of whether an object that has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same. The film explores questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through the stories of a blind photographer, an ailing monk and a stockbroker. click here

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