It was intimidating directing Farhan Akhtar, says Shonali Bose

Mumbai-based filmmaker Shonali Bose's third directorial venture, " Sky Is Pink", starring Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim, is set to premiere at 44th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Friday. In an exclusive interview, director, whose first two films, "Amu" and "Margarita With a Straw", also screened in TIFF, spoke about experience of working with two major Bollywood stars in a restrained, sensitive true story about loss of a teen child and impact of trdy on her parents.

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"It was initially a bit intimidating to work with Farhan and Priyanka," says Bose. "For one, Farhan is a director I personally admire. Moreover, he is someone who has directed Priyanka in a film. I felt conscious, but two actors surrendered completely and trusted me. That made my job easy." " Sky Is Pink" is about a 25-year relationship between a real-life couple, Aditi and Niren Chaudhary, whose 19-year-old daughter, Aisha, died of pulmonary fibrosis contracted as a result of chemorapy done for Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID).

Aisha, who wrote poetry and painted in last five years of her life as life gradually ebbed out of her, saw trailer of "Margarita With a Straw" 30 to 40 times. "She said she hoped that she would live to see film but she died before film was released," Bose says.

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Her parents saw film. Six months later, y approached Bose to make a film about life and death of ir daughter seen from viewpoint of parents. film's narration is done by Aisha, played by Zaira Wasim, who brings her perspective to story in form of a character spirit who lets audience into her life. "This narrative device came to us at st of first draft itself," says Bose, who conducted a workshop to get Priyanka ready for role of mor. "She is a very hard-working actress and gave role her all."

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film, says Bose, was made possible by fact that parents of Aisha shared ir story without any restraint. "Everything in film is real. I did t make up anything," she adds. film's TIFF cut, Bose reveals, is slightly shorter than version that is set to release commercially on October 11.  film that will hit atres in India will have a longer version of a song composed by music director by Pritam with lyrics by Gulzar.

" Sky Is Pink" has been produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapoor, both of whom will be present at film's world premiere alongside Farhan, Priyanka and director. producer of Bose's "Amu" released only three prints of film. "I paid for two additional prints," recalls director. "Margarita With a Straw" had a 300-print release. "A thousand prints of ' Sky Is Pink' will be in atres," reveals Bose. 

Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar 'excited' for TIFF. Proof here