Rain plays spoilsport for Shefali Shah’s ‘Happy Birthday Mummy Ji’ shoot

The monsoon rains have certainly created a havoc in many states and recently, the showers have played spoilsport in the shooting of actress-filmmaker Shefali Shah’s second directorial venture, ‘Happy Birthday Mummyji’.

Last week, after announcing her second short film as a director, Shefali Shah was geared up to shoot the movie at a location in Mumbai’s Madh Island but the untimely rain had put the shooting to a halt, much to the dismay of the cast and crew.

Shefali informs, “It was the first day of the shoot and we were anyway hard pressed for time, it was an ambitious aim to finish the shoot in a short time, with almost half the film in outdoors. We lost like three to four hours because of rain on day one. I freaking out by the end of day one thinking I won’t be able to pull this off. But I had a cracker of a team that took this challenge in their stride and joined me on this insanity. Next day, we worked on an insane different speed, but without compromising on the creativity.”

“This was a tougher shoot than the first short film because it was a very phela hua, the house is a character by itself in the film so everything had to be perfect and show the family that owns it and most importantly it tells a lot about the home maker. Also, we had a big crew and had to take care of all the safety precautions and follow hygiene protocols, which is a must. All in all, we were rushing like Schumacher and uncompromisingly so,” adds Shefali Shah.

Without divulging much details about the movie, Shefali says, “It’s a story of a woman who is recognised by her relationships, her family, her home… a choice she’s happily made, away from her family, due to the present situation. She is forced into isolation. Here she finds the one person she has stayed away from the most. And here starts an unapologetic love affair, with herself.”