Exclusive: Deepti Naval On Her ‘Goldfish’ Co-Star Kalki Koechlin: She Is Brilliant, One Of The Finest Actors Today

After its World Premiere at Busan Film Festival, ‘Goldfish’, an English language feature film starring veteran actress Deepti Naval and Kalki Koechlin, will have its European Premiere at 30th Raindance Film Festival. The festival, which is to be held from 26th October – 5th November 2022 at London, is BAFTA and OSCAR qualifying festival. 

Directed by Pushan Kriplani and produced by Amit Saxena’s Splendid Films (USA), ‘Goldfish’ is selected in the ‘Homegrown’ category and nominated for the ‘Best UK Film’ in the festival. 

Apart from Deepti Naval and Kalki who play the lead roles of mother and daughter, the film also stars the prolific actors Rajit Kapur, Gordon Warnecke (lead in ‘My Beautiful Laundrette), and Bharti Patel (Featured in BBC series Doctors) in pivotal roles. 

Sharing her excitement about ‘Goldfish’ heading to 30th Raindance Film Festival, actress Deepti Naval tells Outlook, “It is thrilling to know that the film is being shown at the because it is an English film, a UK film about Indians living abroad. It is about a woman who has lived there for so long but has not given up her Indianness. It is a universal subject, the scenario can happen anywhere across the globe. It is an interesting equation between a mother and a daughter, who start off in a strange way, and the film explores how this relationship goes.”

She adds, “I am elated that it is going to the festival circuit. We want the entire nation to see the film.”

‘Goldfish’ deals with memory and identity. Anamika (Kalki), the child of a mixed marriage, returns home to her estranged mother Sadhana (Deepti) because she is suffering from the onset of dementia. 

Clearly, starring in a film that deals with a topic like this, comes with a responsibility. “I am playing a woman who’s getting into dementia, not severely impacted by it. But there are little pockets of memories that play with the mind, that’s there. I lost my mother to dementia, and I wondered why it has come to be, there must be a connection that I am supposed to play it,” Deepti adds.

Praising her co-star Kalki, Deepti quips, “I thoroughly enjoyed doing the film and it was a delight working with Kalki Koechlin as a co-star. She is brilliant and one of the very good actors from today’s times.”

The veteran actress, who the audience remembers as Miss Chamko in ‘Chashme Baddoor’, has starred in films like ‘Saath Saath’, ‘Rang Birangi’, ‘Katha’, ‘Kisise Na Kehna’, ‘Kamla’ and ‘Ankahee’, ‘Mirch Masala’ and ‘Memories in March’ among others. 

Recently, she also published her memoir, titled ‘A Country Called Childhood’. When asked about what’s the highlight of the memoir, Deepti asserts, “I think it’s my memories of childhood, everything that went into making me who I am. The people I met, the stories I heard are a big part of me. Of course, life doesn’t turn out to be how you imagine. But that time, the purity of the country you once lived in, ‘The Country Called Childhood’, grooms you, it emotionally feeds you and it makes you who you are going to be for the rest of your life. You will never be able to kind of leave that. Those memories will always be there, no matter that you cannot return to those years.”

Coming back to ‘Goldfish’, the film has its market screening at Marche Du Film (2022) and was part of the First Cut Plus lab in association with Karlovy Vary Film Festival.