‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ was rejected by 11 studios; here’s why Ektaa R Kapoor decide to back the project! | Hindi Movie News

‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ is a rare gem of a film which needs to be watched for its rare genre of having a dark humour along with a powerful script and impressive ensemble. Interestingly though, it was rejected by 11 studios for its subject. Later, it came to Ektaa R Kapoor. Her brother Tusshar Kapoor had suggested her to watch it.
Ekta said, “It was the time when a young director stepped in and showed me the film but I had to move for the meeting in middle and I left saying ‘I promise you If I liked the film and we will see more of it tomorrow’. Then, as I started watching it, I liked it so much that I said please come back tomorrow. I canceled all my meetings and I saw the film. I just loved what she was trying to say. There was purity in the sexual expression of this women’s narrative that was like, ‘Okay I (Ratna Pathak’s character) am 50-55 and hyper on hormones, there is so much suppression and yet I navigate my sexuality through high-level conditioning’. So this is a story I definitely want to tell.”

The producer further reveals that she convinced her distribution team to take up the project, when they said, ‘yeh film dekhega kaun’. She added further, “My distribution team said, yeh dekhega kon and I said you don’t worry, I promise you we’ll make 5-10 more tools to cover the cost but we need to do this movie and I will do everything to make this work. From going to every city for promotion and doing things to putting it out there calling up all my friends to put up a post on it. We did it all and the film worked. I was doing my deal with reliance on promotion and the same day was the release and everyone said this film won’t open at 5 Lakhs and it opened at 1.25 CRs, which was unheard of. We had to show this film had to cover 4-5 crores but if it opened at 1 Cr. 25 Lakh means it would do around 8 crores. I said I would so that so no one thinks that making a movie about women is not financially feasible. You’re not doing charity, you’re catering to half the population.”
The producer has certainly backed up some risky subjects like ‘The Dirty Picture’ and ‘Love Sex Dhokha’ too in the past. Her upcoming projects include ‘Dream Girl 2’ and ‘The Crew’ starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tabu and Kriti Sanon. She is also co-producing ‘The Buckingham Murders’ along with Kareena who’s also starring in it. It’s directed by Hansal Mehta.