Earlier this year, Kajri Babbar, a graduate of Arts University Bournemouth (AUB)'s MA Film Practice course, celebrated a win at the British Council Study UK Alumni Awards for her documentary film work, aimed at sparking debates on pressing social issues.
Winner of the Culture and Creativity Award, which acknowledges filmmakers who've carved a career for themselves in arts and culture and demonstrated their artistic ingenuity, influence and creativity, Kajri has had works screened at the Student Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival.
After saying that this win couldn't have come at a better time, Kajri declares that Lioness, her first-ever feature film, is coming out of pre-production. She reflects:
"There have certainly been lots of challenges, especially with filming across two continents, and it can be hard to appreciate all we’ve achieved when you’re in the thick of it. This prestigious award has given me the boost I needed. My positivity levels are back up and I’ve been reminded that I’m going in the right direction."
Lioness tells the stories of two women living centuries apart. The first story unravels the life and legacy of Sophia Duleep Singh, a prominent suffragette who fervently advocated for women’s rights in the UK.
Born in 1876, Sophia was the third daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh – the last Sikh emperor of Punjab – and a goddaughter of Queen Victoria. As a young woman, Sophia was given a grace-and-favour apartment by the Queen in Hampton Court Palace, outside which she'd later go on to protest for the right to vote. English Heritage unveiled a blue plaque in her memory at Hampton Court earlier in the year.
The second story introduces a fictional character, Simranjeet Kaur, living in London’s Southall Asian suburb in the early 1990s.
The film is set to feature a talented cast including Paige Sandhu, Archana Puran Singh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Colette Dalal Tchantcho, Anup Soni, Edmund Kingsley, and Pratiek Patil Babbar. It's also the first-ever official UK-India co-production.
"Although it’s been hard at times, working on Lioness has been absolutely amazing," says Kajri. "There have been some incredible highs with big producers and stars joining.
"When we signed Emmerdale actress Paige Sandhu to play Sophia, and began to get the attention of the UK and Indian national media, it began to feel like a ‘pinch me’ moment."
Kajri reflects that she didn't start out her journey as a director, favouring ambitions as an actor and studying journalism. It was a compromise between herself and her father, a film producer in India, that led her to MA Film Practice at AUB. After securing a scholarship, Kajri says, "I haven't looked back."
"AUB discovered the director in me, and the first film that I made in the UK was there," she explains. "Pardaa was a 15-minute short about Muslim Indian girls studying in the UK. AUB put it forward for the film festivals, where it got through to the semi-finals at the Student Academy Awards and showed at the BAFTA’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival.
"The positive feedback really spurred me on, and I was thrilled when everyone wanted to be in my graduation film, Khoj. It was a feminist film about the issue in north India of non-residents marrying women for their dowries and then taking the women and their dowries out of the region back to their own homes, leaving the area to get poorer.
"I wrote the story, then shot it in India and the UK. The film came out very well and went to the festivals, getting into the semi-finals at the student Oscars and onto Indian platform screens. It was because of this that I was selected by the British Council to be in the Future Leaders Programme.
"Art is a way of life, it’s not a nine-to-five job, and you don’t know what the future holds. These awards keep you going and help you as you work towards your next goal. They’ve made me stop and take stock and remember that all that hard work has paid off, and I’m actually living my dream!"
