Konkona Sen Sharma on why her mother Aparna Sen never allowed her to watch Ramayan, Mahabharata ‘She rather insisted…’

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Anupama Chopra on Film Companion, she said, “I wasn’t allowed to watch Ramayan and Mahabharat either. She insisted that I read the epics first (before delving into the serialised versions)." Further adding, she said that her mother believed, "the first exposure to these epics should not be someone else’s imagination; it should be a product of your own imagination." In the interview, she also revealed that her mother also never let her watch the mainstream Hindi or Bengali films but explored some world and regional cinema.

Although, she added, “I watched a few here and there, like Mr India and Masoom". In the interview, she further revealed, "Moreover, I wasn’t allowed to watch American soap operas like The Bold and the Beautiful or Santa Barbara, either." Further describing her relation with her mother and influence she had in her life, she revealed her mother's intervention helped her in some way to be open to different kinds of narratives and art forms and views.

She added that her mother also treated her as an adult when she was a kid. "Even then, the way she conducted her life and brought me up… I was always given a certain space and agency of my own.

So that, I think, helped me a lot," she said in the interview. Konkona Sen Sharma recently directed "Lust Stories 2" segment “The Mirror." Many reviews hailed "The Mirror" as the standout segment in the Netflix anthology on lust for the way it takes on issues such as class divide and voyeurism through the story of a house owner walking in on her maid having sex in her bedroom.

“The Mirror" comes almost seven years after she made her directorial debut "A Death in the Gunj". Konkona acted across languages and genres in films such as "Mr and Mrs Iyer", "Omkara", "Life in