Kiran Rao on financial security in Mumbai owes more to advertising work than feature films: ‘My father bought me my first car for Rs 10 lakh’ | Hindi Film News
Before becoming a successful director, Kiran Rao worked as an assistant director on various productions, including Aamir Khan’s landmark film Lagaan. In a recent interview, Kiran revealed that despite being busy as an assistant director on several feature films, he was not earning enough money to survive in Mumbai. The Laapata Ladies director said that his advertising job helped him to fund his life in Mumbai.
“I used to be a gig economy worker: I’d get a job, work until I got paid, then look for another job while worrying about whether my savings would last or whether I’d be able to pay rent,” Kiran said on the podcast, Cyrus Says.
When the host pointed out that her job in “Lagaan” must have been high-paying, she replied, “Feature films didn’t make me any money. It was ads that gave me the money to live in Mumbai. With “Lagaan” the advertising system kind of kicked in for the first time.” She also said that her advertising jobs had allowed her to buy “super expensive things” like computers and cars.
During the conversation, Kiran also shared that she bought her first car for Rs 10 lakh from her father. “I bought a car from my father. He sold it to me for Rs 10 lakh. Have you heard? He said, ‘This is the only way to save money’. We drove from Bangalore to Mumbai on the newly built expressway,” she said.
In the same podcast, Kiran shared her tough experience while working as an AD in Lagaan. She said, “If I was having a coffee, I would get yelled at if something went wrong. I would get yelled at all the time. Reema Kagti was a tough deputy AD who was always complaining to me. She was the one running around. We were just four ADs running around on a huge set. The film was shot with live sound, the first big-budget film to have it. It was all outdoors and we were far away from everything.”
“I used to be a gig economy worker: I’d get a job, work until I got paid, then look for another job while worrying about whether my savings would last or whether I’d be able to pay rent,” Kiran said on the podcast, Cyrus Says.
When the host pointed out that her job in “Lagaan” must have been high-paying, she replied, “Feature films didn’t make me any money. It was ads that gave me the money to live in Mumbai. With “Lagaan” the advertising system kind of kicked in for the first time.” She also said that her advertising jobs had allowed her to buy “super expensive things” like computers and cars.
During the conversation, Kiran also shared that she bought her first car for Rs 10 lakh from her father. “I bought a car from my father. He sold it to me for Rs 10 lakh. Have you heard? He said, ‘This is the only way to save money’. We drove from Bangalore to Mumbai on the newly built expressway,” she said.
In the same podcast, Kiran shared her tough experience while working as an AD in Lagaan. She said, “If I was having a coffee, I would get yelled at if something went wrong. I would get yelled at all the time. Reema Kagti was a tough deputy AD who was always complaining to me. She was the one running around. We were just four ADs running around on a huge set. The film was shot with live sound, the first big-budget film to have it. It was all outdoors and we were far away from everything.”
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