'Can't make sugar-coated cinema': Anuparna Roy scripted history at Venice

Songs of Forgotten Trees, which won the Orizzonti Award at Venice, marks the first such win by an Indian director.

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Trembling with joy and unable to hold back tears, Roy's visceral display of emotion on stage demonstrated how big the moment was - scripting history as the first Indian director to win in a category specially devoted to new voices in independent world cinema.

That itself is a towering achievement, but Roy's grassroots origins in a nondescript tribal village in West Bengal state's Purulia district - thousands of miles from Venice's glamorous palazzos - makes her triumph even more meaningful.

From Ritwik Ghatak to Satyajit Ray to Mrinal Sen, Bengal has produced many globally celebrated auteurs. But unlike them, Roy, 31, grew up far away from the elite cultural influences of Kolkata, and took a path more well-worn by small-town Indians - a college degree followed by a call-centre job.

It was an escape route from the pressures of marrying and "a means to economic stability", Roy told me over a Zoom chat. But it ended up becoming much more.