Celina Jaitley talks with Subhash K Jha, about her 2005 film Khalid Mohamed’s Silsiilay.
It is 20 years of your best films?
Silsiilay was truly ahead of its time, a beautiful anthology of three emotionally layered stories, each capturing love and longing across different stages of life.
You were in a segment featuring the wonderful Tabu?
I had the privilege of being part of the most hard-hitting segment, opposite veterans like Tabu and Kay Kay Menon. Sharing screen space with such phenomenal seniors was an incredible learning experience there was such a natural creative synergy between us. We vibed in a way that made even the silences between the lines feel powerful.
What was Khalid like as a director?
Working with Khalid Mohammed was like being part of a painting in motion he had a way of weaving human emotion into frames. And then, of course, there was the cinematographer Santosh Sivan… to be shot by someone of his calibre in the film .
Silsiilay also had some interesting music?
The beautiful song ‘Be-libaas’ was nothing short of magical. That song became iconic, and remains one of the most cherished solo pieces of my career. Two decades later, I still feel incredibly grateful to Khalid Mohammed for the opportunity to be part of something so artistically rich and emotionally resonant.
