Four years in the waiting and filmmaker Rajshree Ojha’s English multi-starrer, Chaurahen, is finally up for release this month and the filmmaker, in all honestly, is quite happy. After all, albeit the delay, the film does boast of a fantastic cast lineup and is certain to draw in some good reviews. “When I made the film in 2007, I took it to different film festivals. Around the same time, Life In A Metro happened and I didn’t want to release my film at that time. After that, it just never happened. I got busy with Aisha and Chaurahen just took a backseat,” admits Rajshree.

Why now, we wonder? “I think it’s a film people should see. After Chaurahen did the festival rounds, I didn’t have the strength to release it on my own. You must understand, it’s an English film and no matter how many people in India watch Hollywood movies, Indian films in English are rarely given that kind of attention. Thanks to this whole PVR Director’s Rare initiative, my film is now releasing in the theatres,” says the director, going on to add, “If Aamir Khan hadn’t encouraged a film like Dhobi Ghaat, which is also mostly in English, filmmakers like us would not have had the courage to release our films. I didn’t quite think Chaurahen would have a chance in Indian theatres.”

Talking about the cast, Rajshree says that she was absolutely honoured to work with each of the actors. “From the look of it, one might wonder how we pulled it off. The cast is fabulous and come from different schools of thought. But let me tell you; each of these actors is so professional that it was as seamless as I could hope for. Everyone came on time, they were ready with their lines and actors like Victor Banerjee and Dhritman Chatterjee gave the perfect shot in two takes,” explains Rajshree. The film also stars Soha Ali Khan, Zeenat Aman, Shayan Munshi, and even Arundhati Nag.