Rajkumari Woke

What if 'Sleeping Beauty' was a 21st century Indian bride caught in the hands of her relatives?

The film takes on age-old subjects of patriarchy, skin-color and body image through the twisted tale that little girls are still being told today.

Edited in camera. Shot on 8mm.

  • Michaela Talwar
    Director
    Intellectual Mastrubation
  • Aditi Mediratta
    Writer
    Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, The Dirty Picture, Kaboom, Elevated
  • Harkat Studios
    Producer
    And Sometimes She Loved Me Too, Ek Minute 2018, Ek Minute 2019, [Love],
  • Sheba Alexander
    Key Cast
    "Princess"
  • Paromita Chatterjee
    Key Cast
    "Mother"
    Bangistaan, Kaabil, Kalakandi, Bombairiya, Anni Ki Ko gayi Waah Bhai Waah, Kum Kum
  • Shahnaz Anand
    Key Cast
    "Grandmother"
    Black, Naam, Kismat Konnection
  • Shobha Dongle
    Key Cast
    "Maid"
  • Karan Talwar
    Key Cast
    "Prince"
  • Suprateek Chatterjee
    Original Score
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    drama, fairytale
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 20 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 15, 2019
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    8mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Michaela Talwar

Michaela Talwar (M.A.) is a trained journalist and self-made artist. She is the co-founder and creative director at Harkat Studios, Mumbai's first alternative performance space. There she makes
documentary and art films and curates performances and immersive art experiences. Being a polyglot traveller, she prefers to stay geographically and professionally fluid instead of following one identity.
Her driving force is a combination of creativity with hands-on result-oriented thinking - in 2015 she published a book on rural empowerment through audiovisual storytelling in
India. Currently she is exploring big topics and idiosyncrasies of human society through small stories.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Being a bride in India is a full-time job starting from the moment the girl's engagement is announced.
Until now achieving good grades or a decent job might have mattered most in her life, but once she's destined to become someone's wife even the most modern of families focus on what otherwise would be considered ridiculously trivial.
The kind of "requests" and advices the young woman has to face range from unsolicited to outright embarrassing in the light of her supposedly open-minded upbringing.

While I found the hype and money spent around "the bride" initially fascinating, it became increasingly upsetting to see how age-old tales are still persisting deep into many women's mindsets; they become the driving force and master mind behind in this superficial "transformation" - no matter what education background.

Taking the Western narration style of a fairytale which holds so many similar meanings, I am trying to comment on this practice in a tongue-in-cheek way.
And maybe also appeal to young girls and make them want to be the kind of woke rajkumari the protagonist is.