Tannishtha turns writer for Onir s film

Mumbai March 8 (IANS) Acclaimed actress Tannishtha Chatterjee is on to her new vocation. She turns writer with a film entitled "Driving Lessons".

Tannishtha said: "It s an idea I had been toying with for some time about a relationship that grows between a driving instructor and the woman whom he teaches to drive over a period of two weeks. The film addresses issues such as class differences and women s empowerment but in a light unostentatious way. I didn t want my first attempt at writing to be top heavy with ideas and messages."

The challenge of playing a woman who is not economically challenged was what attracted Tannishtha to this film.

"I think I ve done enoughA of those roles that require me to be impoverished and oppressed. Though the challenge of making every underprivileged character dignified and unvanquished is welcome at the moment I am done with playing these crushed oppressed women in crumpled cotton saris.

"The last of these roles for now is in director Amit Kumar s Monsoon Shootout where I play Nawazuddin Siddiqui s wife once again. I shot for this film seven years ago."

In "Driving Lessons" Tannishtha has written a classy role from the upper class for herself.

"It feels different to be playing a woman who doesn t have to constantly worry about how to feeed herself and her children " she said laughing.

The film directed by Onir pairs Tannishtha with Onir s protege Ashish Bisht. Bisht plays a younger man to Tannishta s character of the bored housewife in search of excitement behind the wheels.

--IANS
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