13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Renuka Shahane Interview: When I started making an animated film I knew I wouldn't get my money back
When you think of Mumbai, something that comes to your mind apart from Bollywood is the busy lifeline of the city, the local trains. The humdrum of the trains serves as a reminder of the monotonous nature of a worker's life. But actor-director Renuka Shahane's animated short film, Loop Line, uses trains as a reminder of a housewife's plight. 'Housewives, who are in a way the backbone of traditional patriarchal families, and their immense efforts in taking care of everything, are disrespected and disregarded just for the fact that they cater to everyone's needs,' says Renuka, on the inception of the idea for Loop Line.
Renuka's Loop Line, which is to be screened at the New York Indian Film Festival on June 21, is her first animated film. In it, we see a day of a middle-aged housewife in Mumbai with a domineering husband as she goes through the tedious monotony of household chores and abuse. Like the train service, she starts her work early in the morning and continues to work until late at night. Talking about the usage of trains as an allegory, Renuka explains, 'Those women who do that day in and day out, without any reprieve and without receiving any gratitude, stick it out in an automative manner. Hence, I wanted to use the Mumbai Local as a parallel to a housewife's routine.'
