“I don’t think we should be approaching the subject this way, Krishna. I’d like to do it differently,” she told her bureau chief at The Week years ago. Even then, the youngest journalist in the Mumbai bureau of the Malayala Manorama Group, Sejal Shah knew exactly the narrative treatment she wanted for her stories. Years later, she carries the same clarity and commitment to the stories she creates on the silver screen. This same precision defines her directorial debut, Costao, and people are taking notice.
Yet few know the breadth of her work across genres and mediums. To truly understand Sejal’s journey, we must return to her roots in journalism.
At The Week, she once vanished from the newsroom for several days, only to return with a major exposé on Santokben Jadeja, the infamous “Godmother” of Porbandar. She had spent days in Jadeja’s stronghold, and her story made waves. Over nearly a decade in journalism, Sejal won several awards, including the British Chevening Award for Best Upcoming Journalist.
And then, she took a sudden sabbatical from journalism. Why? “I kept asking myself: ‘What next? What more can I do?’ I wanted to be challenged,” she says. “So, I went to Los Angeles and did a film appreciation course. I had never thought of making a film. But while I was writing and learning there, I realized I enjoyed the process.”
Back in India, she directed her first documentary, Joginis – Servants of God. Official entry at the Locarno Film Festival, it won the Grand prize at the Human Rights Film Festival in Geneva and was selected in the competition section at FIPA International festival at Biarritz, France. It also screened at Anchorage, Festival Résistances in France, and the Tongues on Fire Festival in London. “It was a challenge to do it all on my own but journalism had trained me to deep dive while telling a story. Making Joginis was an extension of that. The tough part was to sell it and get people to watch it.” She followed it up with another documentary, Mangala Tamasha Party, which won IDPA and RAPA awards.
With no film background and no mentors to assist, Sejal carved her own path - creating ad films, short films, and even directing commercials for The Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka’s leading daily owned by Ranjit Wijewardene. She made four films for the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s family, all of which were nominated for awards.
“I always wanted to direct,” she says. “But who would hand me a film unless I carried a solid script? So, I began writing. And if I was going to write a script and wanted to direct it, I also wanted to have a say in how it was made. Producing was the natural next step. When you are both director and writer-producer, you know how to balance the creativity with market realities.”
But direction still remained elusive. Her breakthrough came when she met Bhavesh Mandalia, “one of the best writers in the country,” she adds. A former software engineer who had written Oh My God, Bhavesh shared her vision. Together, they launched Bombay Fables.
Their first major project was Serious Men for Netflix. Bhavesh wrote it, Sudhir Mishra directed and Nawazuddin Siddiqui starred. “It was with Serious Men that I leant everything about production,” she says. The film won the Best OTT Film Award (Filmfare) and earned Siddiqui a Best Actor win along with an international Emmy nomination.
Bombay Fables followed it with Decoupled and Asur 2, one of IMDB’s top 10 most popular Indian web series. They were also creative producers for Delhi Crime 2, based on the Nirbhaya case.
It was during Serious Men that Sejal heard of Costao. “I knew I had to make this film”. But the subject, Costao himself, had long refused to allow it. Over the next 18 months, Sejal and Bhavesh kept meeting and speaking with Costao, and slowly earned his trust. Eventually, he agreed. Bhavesh and Meghna Srivastav wrote the script and Nawazuddin Siddiqui signed on to play the lead. “I debuted with Nawaz as a producer. And now I have debuted with Nawaz as a director,” she shares with a smile.
The journey wasn’t smooth. “It took time for people to trust me,” she admits. Filmmaking has traditionally been considered a male-dominated field. Did she face gender bias? “People talk to Bhavesh and me differently in meetings. Once, during a financial negotiation, a big producer told me, ‘ask your husband.’ I said, ‘No, you ask your wife—I’ll ask my C.A.’ We’re all agents of patriarchy in some way,” she observes.
“Women are expected to make a certain kind of films. When people watch Costao, they say ‘your film doesn’t look like it is made by a woman’. These perceptions create huge limitations. I wanted full ownership of Costao’s creative integrity. I cherished that freedom. So, I say with all humility, if anything is wrong with the film, I take complete responsibility.”
Sejal feels fortunate to have a strong and equal partner in Bhavesh. Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, too, has said he never viewed her as a “female director”—just a director and he enjoyed working with her. “Filmmaking is teamwork,” she avers. “I am grateful to all 500 people who worked on the film. We are not doing a brain surgery—there’s no need to shout or make life hard for others. Everyone deserves to go home at peace and sleep easy.”
Reflecting on the past decade, Sejal says, “It’s been tough. I have had my fair share of lows and highs, more lows than highs. But this is what I want to do. I am grateful for being given this one chance to do what I love – and to do it my way. I used to think I had control over my destiny. Now I know I don’t and luck plays a part too. I focus on my work. I give my best, and I’ve learned to let go.”
Her forthcoming work includes Saare Jahan se Achchha, a spy thriller on Netflix and one thriller and an action film.
Her biggest dream? “I have found myself as a filmmaker. I was all over the place earlier. Now I have learnt to live in the moment. I am living my biggest dream.”
