Film on depression during pandemic

Filmmaker Kabir Thapar, who is the youngest director of our generation to be honored with the most respected Dada Saheb Phalke International Award is back with yet another powerful film 'Smile Simi' based on depression that affected people in the Corona crisis the most. It is streaming now on Disney Hotstar.

The film narrates the story of Simi and her perfect world, who is yet lurking in the shadows because of an enemy that is responsible to shatter the happiness of her family and their little world.

'Smile Simi' stars Neeta Mohindra, best known to play the role of Sushant Singh Rajput's mother in the blockbuster 'MS Dhoni- An Untold Story' along with Sanjay Gurbaxani, Saadhika Syal and Namrata Kapoor in the lead roles. Sonu Nigam, who has sung a song for the film is touted as the smiling anthem of the year.

On talking about the film director Kabir Thapar shares, "Smile Simi is all about the peer pressure over smiling and staying positive, even when one is mentally affected. It's not about just the individual, but also what their family goes through. The aim of the film is to make people take mental health seriously. It's not a crime if someone is not able to organically feel the happiness. It's high time our nation should be aware of mental health issues, addressing it seriously which might save many lives. I felt this was best time to conceptualize this content, during the peak pandemic time with so many people taking their own lives."

Interestingly, the film has turned out to be an eye opener. It not only created awareness like never before but also with the help of mouth publicity, many people have started taking action after watching it. The film is serving its purpose in a big way as it teaches you to save yourself and others from the biggest enemy of our mind called depression.

On talking about how pandemic has changed film making and OTT game Thapar shares, "Thankfully, my pandemic experience wasn't bad. I can't say much about others, but in my case. it gave me a lot of quality time to work on my upcoming films. OTT's are a great platform and it's definitely the future. It has changed the entire system. Since it's easily accessible to one & all, I think Censorship must be there to filter content."

Being Dada Saheb Phalke awardee he shares that Dada Saheb is known as the father of our industry. Having his name attached is a pressure. But it's a healthy pressure. "I consider it as a big motivation. Nothing else can replace those feelings. It's good to know that your work is appreciated. It's really fulfilling. Also it's keeps on toes to create good content," says Thapar.