That Girl in Yellow Boots

About the film

That Girl in Yellow Boots is a 2010 Indian thriller film directed by Anurag Kashyap and co-written by Kalki Koechlin. It stars Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah and Gulshan Devaiya. The film tells the story of Ruth, a British expat, who has come to India to find her estranged dad.

The film was first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, and later at the Venice Film Festival and the South Asian International Film Festival. It was commercially released the next year on September, 2011, in India and the U.S.

Plot

Ruth Edscer (Kalki Koechlin), a British-Indian woman, arrives in Mumbai searching for her father, Arjun Patel, who had abandoned her family when she was a kid. Except for a letter that he had once sent, she has no official documents of his existence. She visits government offices in an attempt to track him down but encounters bureaucratic hurdle and dead ends. With limited money, she takes a job at a massage parlour where she secretly offers illicit services to male clients willing to pay extra.

Ruth is in a volatile relationship with Prashant, a drug addict who frequently manipulates her for money. He owes a large sum to a local gangster named Chittiappa, who soon takes an interest in Ruth. Chittiappa pressures her to help cover Prashant’s debt and begins to assert control over her, pretending to be a protector while making unwanted advances. Meanwhile, Ruth continues her search for Arjun, visiting hospitals, churches, and neighbourhoods where he might have lived, but she finds no clear answers.

One day, she receives a promising lead that directs her to an address where a man named Arjun Patel resides. She arrives and meets an older man who reacts strangely upon seeing her. She explains who she is and why she has been looking for him. At first, he refuses to acknowledge her, but as the conversation continues, he confirms that he is indeed her father. However, he remains distant and does not offer her any explanation for his disappearance.

Production

Lead actress Kalki Koechlin who also co-wrote the film with Anurag Kashyap mentioned, "A lot of these characters were based loosely on figures that I had seen growing up in India ...Growing up as a white-skinned woman in India, I was always the odd one out – there was a certain alienation that came with that, and you end up alienating yourself because everyone comes to you like the white girl, the easy, "Baywatch," loose-moraled white girl."

Kashyap asked Koechlin to write the first scene, to get a female perspective on the treatment of white women at Indian government offices as she personally experienced the objectification. He also wanted to explore the theme of child abuse; he had previously played the role of child abuser in I Am (2010) by Onir, and he himself had been a victim of child abuse for 11 years. At the writing stage Koechlin and Kashyap disagreed on the ending initially, as Koechlin wanted an optimistic ending, unlike Kashyap who wanted to portray that "...you don't always get solutions to your problems".

The film had difficulty finding funding because it dealt with controversial themes like child abuse and drug addiction and "differed so vastly from his previous work". As Kashyap put it, "I wanted to break the formula that many directors and actors find themselves in."

Release

After travelling to 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, 67th Venice International Film Festival in September 2010 and International Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA), at its New York premiere on 24 August 2011, at the Asia Society, director Anurag Kashyap said, "I hope you feel the film, because you will not enjoy it." The film's commercial release, however, took over a year as it was delayed to coincide with its US release to avoid internet piracy. Indian distributors were not keen on the film, as without big Bollywood stars they did not find it viable for an international release; they mainly cater to an NRI (Non-resident Indian) audience. Finally US based-distributor IndiePix Films came on board for paving the way for a US release with 30 prints, all in non-NRI theatres, a rare feat for a Bollywood film. Meanwhile, the film was also sold in Scandinavian countries, Turkey, Southern Europe, and New Zealand. Its satellite rights were sold in many countries. The film thus became Kashyap's first worldwide release, as it was released in 40 US theatres on 2 September by IndiePix Films, on the same day of its India release. Previously, after its showing at the London Indian Film Festival, Britain-based Mara Pictures picked up the film there for UK release in last quarter of 2011. Kashyap later told BBC News that he received a negative backlash from financial backers because…

Prior to its India release, the first look of the film was unveiled to the press on 11 August 2011.

Key details