‘Waack Girls’ is about ‘young women standing their ground’, says creator Sooni Taraporevala

In 2020, Sooni Taraporevala wrote and directed Yeh Ballet, a film about two working-class youngsters who learn the intricacies of pointe work. Taraporevala’s new project, Waack Girls, was inspired by one of the actors in Yeh Ballet, played by Mekhola Bose.

Waack Girls stars Bose as Ishani, a Kolkata resident who practises the energetic dance style waacking. Encouraged by talent manager Lopa (Rytasha Rathore), Ishani sets up and trains a group of waackers.

The nine-episode series explores the back stories of Lopa, Ishani and the four other women who comprise the group. Lopa, who is openly lesbian, battles with her wealthy family, especially her father (Nitesh Pandey).

While Ishani worries about her ailing grandfather (Barun Chanda), Tess (Chrisann Pereira) has a mother (Lillete Dubey) with a gambling habit. Michke (Priyam Saha) too has a troublesome mother who fusses over her. Anumita (Ruby Sah) is a gymnast who would rather dance. Ishani’s friend LP (Anasua Chowdhury) is a fashion designer with bills to play.

The cast includes Achintya Bose, who starred in Yeh Ballet, as Ishani’s neighbour Manik. The series has original music by Salvage Audio Collective as well as licensed music.

Waack Girls will be premiered on Prime Video on November 22. Taraporevala wrote the show along with Cat Sticks director Ronny Sen and her daughter Iyanah Bativala, who appeared in Taraporevala’s debut feature Little Zizou in 2008. The mostly Hindi-language series uses dance to explore the dreams and challenges of young women, 67-year-old Taraporevala told Scroll. Here are edited excerpts from the interview.

What did you know about waacking before you made Waack Girls?

I had no idea about waacking. I first saw Mekhola dance when I cast her in Yeh Ballet. I loved what she did, but I had no idea what it was called.

Waacking has a history that really interested me. It started in gay clubs in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s. A lot of people were dying from AIDS at the time.

I wrote My Own Country for Mira Nair, which was based on Abraham Verghese’s book about when AIDS first began in America. I was immersed in that world, and it was interesting that waacking had a deep history behind it – one of expression of pain. I worked that into the series and Ishani’s character and why she starts waacking.

What can you tell about the show’s plot?

It’s about six very different women and what they go through in their personal lives, especially with their families. Ayush Ahuja, who did the sound design, said this is a show about mothers and daughters and in a way, it is.

It’s about caregiving, sometimes babysitting a grandparent or a mother, resisting your mother’s definition of beauty, resisting family expectations, living on your own terms. It’s about independent young women standing their ground, being themselves and having fun.

When did you develop Waack Girls?

I started thinking about it in 2020. I pitched it and it got picked up by Aparna Purohit at Amazon. I then started a writers’ room with Iyanah Bativala and Ronny Sen.

The show initially started with four characters: Ishani, her grandfather, her neighbour Manik and her manager Lopa. Achintya and Mekhola were both in Yeh Ballet, and they have a wonderful synergy – I called them Bose Square. In the writers’ room, the characters expanded into a group.

How did you find the actors who could convincingly play dancers?

We had such specific characteristics for each girl that we kind of wrote ourselves into a corner in terms of casting. But I had a fantastic casting director, Tess Joseph, who cast 88 characters.

We miraculously found our girls. Tess was written as an Anglo-Indian, and we found Chrisann, who is also an Anglo-Indian. Ruby Sah, whose debut it is, is a gymnast in reality and in the story.

Mekhola, Anasua and, to an extent, Chrisann, are dancers. Anasua, who plays LP, is one of the original waackers. Priyam, who played Michke, actually picked up waacking and did a fabulous job, as did Ruby. When Rytasha came to audition for Lopa, she was fantastic. We auditioned her again and she was fantastic again.

We did an acting workshop with Barry John. We were blessed in terms of the cast. They got along like a house on fire.

Why did you set the show in Kolkata – was it because Mekhola Bose is from there?

I love the city. Also, the show was inspired by Mekhola.

The whole series was shot on location except for two sequences. We found this fantastic house in Calcutta – you can never find a house like that in Bombay.

Ever since your first screenplay for Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988), you have only written films. What was it like to create a long-form series – and did you draw any lessons from Yeh Ballet?

Long form is very enjoyable. You can draw out characters and drive out plotlines. As a writer of screenplays, I am always battling length. To have unlimited length was a luxury I’ve never had.

For Yeh Ballet and Waack Girls, I cast dancers who could act too. What I did learn was how to shoot dance with a great deal of fluidity. For Waack Girls, I had a wonderful cinematographer, Igor Kropotov, and two young gaffers who made the whole thing look very beautiful. I think, and I hope, that visually the series will stand out.

I also had great choreographers – Mekhala, Yoon Jin Lee from Taiwan and Shiamak Davar. Yoon Jin Lee choreographed the music video as a complete piece. We had to break it up into different locations in Calcutta, which Shiamak did with his dancers and choreographers.

You have worked with your daughter, Iyanah Bativala, on the series. Was that smooth?

Both Iyanah and my son Jehan have helped me tremendously. The reason that I, as a senior citizen, can make a show for young adults is because I surround myself with young people and I have two young people in my family who are brutally honest with me and have great ideas. Iyanah has written the funniest bits, a lot of her lines are in the trailer.