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Your attire doesn’t define your sense of Freedom: Tannishtha Chatterjee

“What you wear doesn’t define your sense of freedom. A person wearing a hijab can have more liberated thoughts than someone wearing jeans,” director and actor Tannishtha Chatterjee opined, stressing that clothing should never be used as a measure of personal freedom. She was speaking at the Meet the Director session held on 15 December 2025 at the IFFK.
She also emphasised that attire is shaped by cultural circumstances and habits, and should not become a yardstick to judge an individual’s mental or ideological freedom. Her film Full Plate, screened at the festival, strongly reflects these ideas. Chatterjee, whose work won the Marie Claire Visionary Director Award at the Busan International Film Festival, noted that the film engages with contemporary Indian political realities, where food, religion, caste, and class have increasingly become central to public discourse.
The session, moderated by filmmaker Balu Kiriyath, turned into a vibrant forum for filmmakers to exchange perspectives on cinema and socio-political themes. Several notable directors participated, sharing insights into their works.
Nipin Narayanan, Arun Varghese, and Adithya Baby discussed their psychological and experimental films, while Dr. Biju spoke about Papa Buka, Papua New Guinea’s Oscar entry. International voices also enriched the discussion, with Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín, Ecuadorian director Ana Cristina Barragán, and debut director Anuparna Roy sharing their experiences and creative journeys, reinforcing IFFK as a key platform for expressing identity and contemporary realities.