Choices is a satire on real-life psychological effects of lockdown on relationships: Damini Shetty

When former actress & creative honcho Damini Shetty announced last year about a film she was making along with her husband Raaj Shetty, what caught our attention was the idea, a movie based on true events, the lockdown imposed after the onset of the pandemic. 

Choices, a film that revolves around the ever-changing relationship between a couple that ensued from the lockdown premiered last week & it is now striking a chord with the audience for its realistic approach supporting statistics of rising in failed marriages in the last year. 

Starring real-life couple Barkha Bisht & Indraneil Sengupta, Choices is directed by Damini Shetty & Raaj Shetty under the banner Eternal Flames production. Damini reveals that news programs put the seed of the idea into their minds. ''When you're sitting at home during the lockdown & you're watching a lot of news. What would get wiped out in the news against all information overload on Covid, was the news of how relationships/ marriages are being affected. How people are being affected by staying at home 24*7. There were enough talks about the virus but I vividly remember certain television programs that spoke about the psychological effects of the lockdown on people & that made us realize that there is a story to tell there.''

''What we tried to do is, the film is made with a dash of humor, dark humor. We might be married to our spouses for many years, but we are so busy in our respective professional & personal lives. They don't really spend 24 hours, 7 days of a week together. They spend a limited amount of time together so it is easy to get along for that limited time the most.''

''I think the lockdown challenged a lot of relationships, new, old when suddenly you were with your family 24*7 & that is when you realize how close you really were. That is what we are trying to say here that sometimes what you think is a reality of your marriage, of your life, of your relationship, may not as be real as you think it is. Because you've never had to test it. There were testing times. We've tried to tell a story of a couple who were tested & the ramifications of it,'' Damini points out.