Tisca Chopra: If someone is so beautiful, you don't feel sympathy for them

In a recent conversation with India Forums, filmmaker Tisca Chopra opened up about the way beauty is viewed and valued in the entertainment industry. Known for her sharp observations and emotional honesty, Tisca spoke at length about why conventional beauty often fails to move us, and how cinema thrives not on perfection, but on authenticity. Her reflections came while discussing her directorial debut Saali Mohabbat, a film that quietly challenges how we see love, desire, and moral choices.

Talking about beauty standards, Tisca offered a perspective that cuts through surface-level glamour.

I think beauty brings its own charm and rewards. But there is a French poet called Colette who said, “Too much beauty arouses no sympathy.” So there is something to be said about that. If someone is so perfect, so beautiful, so unbelievable, you don’t even feel sympathy for them. Because you think they’ll find someone else, what’s the problem, right? What is it really? So I feel we fall in love with whoever we fall in love with, we fall in love with the crooked smile, the bent nose, the little pot belly. We like those things about a person because they make them who they are. And when you fall in love, they say, when you love a donkey, even a fairy doesn’t matter. So it’s one of those things. I think it works either way.

- Tisca Chopra

For Tisca, the real responsibility of cinema lies with storytellers and performers. She stressed that the job of a director, writer, or actor is to make the audience believe in a character deeply enough to care for them. Speaking about Saali Mohabbat, she praised Radhika Apte, Divyendu Sharma, and Anurag Kashyap for bringing such conviction to their roles that viewers naturally connect with them.

The job of a director, or a writer, and an actor for that matter, is to make you fall in love. And that’s where both Divyenndu and Radhika, and in fact the entire principal cast, are extremely skilled. They each made you fall in love with and believe that person. My job was just to take them there and leave them; they just took it and ran with it. That was the joy of working with such a stellar cast.

- Tisca Chopra

Released on Z5 on December 12, 2025, Saali Mohabbat marks Tisca Chopra’s first film as a director. The mystery thriller explores themes of betrayal, shifting identities, trust, and moral ambiguity within relationships. With a tense narrative and layered characters, the film avoids easy judgments and instead asks viewers to sit with discomfort and complexity.