Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari talks about her journey, the importance of scriptwriters, and the changing world of OTT

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is a writer, director and now a producer, basking in the success of the Huma Qureshi-starrer Tarla and the Janhvi Kapoor-Sidharth Malhotra film Bawal. Right from the beginning of her career as a filmmaker, she has ventured into narrating stories that inspire change. Her films, including Nil Battey Sannata, Bareilly Ki Barfi and Panga, among others, have strong female protagonists who encourage the audience to follow their dreams, regardless of the circumstances they come from.

In conversation with Tiwari about all things movies.

Harper’s Bazaar: You moved from advertising to directing films and now producing them. Could you take us through your journey?

Ashwiny Tiwari: I started working in advertising at Leo Burnett in 2000. Over a period of 16 years I worked with some of the best brains in the industry. I worked on Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) for nearly 12 years and one of the campaigns I worked on had a girl saying ‘Mubarak ho ladki huyee hai’ (Congratulations, it’s a girl)—it was about breaking barriers. That ad really resonated with me. I’ve always been very fluid in terms of my dreams and aspirations. I think all of us like to enhance ourselves in various capabilities. At one point I wanted to direct, so I directed my first short film called What’s For Breakfast? and that won a National Award. I was still in Leo Burnett and I didn’t want to quit because I am a middle class girl who needed the job security. But the urge was there. At that time no one had really comprehended that a woman with a corporate job will just give up everything to enter Bollywood, of all things. My mother was shocked and asked me what would happen to my having a secretary and jet-setting across the globe dream. For her, those comforts were more important. 

Nil Battey Sannata was an idea and I started writing the story while I still had my job. I finally took the plunge and my boss told me that if things didn’t work out, I could always go back to Leo Burnett. I gave the script of Nil Battey Sannata an executive producer and asked him who he thought could direct the film and he suggested I do it myself. You always need that one person to just trust you more than anyone else. And I am very thankful to him today because he figured I was a good storyteller. I was surviving on my gratuity and provident fund.

Once on a trip to Delhi, I happened to pick up a book called Ingredients of Love. I read it on the flight and when I got back, I started writing and that turned out to be Bareily ki Barfi. Things have always been very fluid. A friend from Fox sent me the script for Panga. So things have just moved on their own. I believe that I need to keep telling stories to inspire youngsters to know that it doesn’t matter what your background is, you can still make it if you really have the passion. Now that I am producing films, it’s like a full circle because effectively that’s what we were doing in Burnett. It came very naturally to me and I also wanted to give wings to a lot of writers and directors to tell their own stories. I’m not very ambitious. But I’m ambitious enough to know that I want to add value to my work and to the people around me. If they are happy and they grow, I grow too. Sometimes I just look around and I wonder, how far I have come.

HB: Do you have a secretary now and have your mother’s fears been quashed? 

AT: (laughs) Yes I do, and I can’t manage without her and my mom is very happy.

HB: Your movies are script-driven with a strong female protagonist. Do you think scriptwriters are being given their due?

AT: I think scriptwriters are being given their due now. Today, you even see actors talking about who has written the script, I think that makes a lot of difference. Today as a producer, I see, we are giving importance to scriptwriters. It’s a far cry from the time when scriptwriters would quietly give the script away. Now they have a voice and their voice is very important to us. As writers, as directors, I think each one has their own individual voice. Those voices were never there. Earlier, it was always an actor’s movie. But times have changed. Now it’s also a director’s film. There is coexistence.

HB: OTT platforms have become the new theaters. What does that mean for the box office, especially for movies like yours? 

AT: A lot of shift happened during Covid and at that time people started writing for OTT. The style of direction also changed since OTT gives you the opportunity to go slightly deeper in terms of storytelling. The audience is different. It’s not collective viewing. But now people are slowly going back to the theatres. It’s very important for us, as storytellers, to not take our audiences for granted and also tell the kind of stories which will push them from the comfort of their homes to a theater. We can tell all kinds of stories and we can choose what medium we want to tell it in. But there are some stories which are only meant for a theatrical release. The joy of seeing people’s faces when they are watching your film on the big screen is very different. But the kind of love you get from your OTT audience is also very strong. I am glad I have the option to work for both.