‘Fruit Chaat’ tackles disability tropes with humour and wit on screen
Tanzila Khan on the making of the web series, media recommendations and resources
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Tanzila Khan and I crossed paths last year and connected immediately. A disability activist from Pakistan, currently settled in Sweden, Tanzila is warm and affectionate and has a way of drawing people in, making them feel valued and comfortable.
With her 8-episode web series Fruit Chaat releasing soon, I caught up with her on the making of the series and her role as producer, writer and actor. In this candid interview, she talks not only about what she could do with this ambitious project but also about what she couldn’t.
Poster of the soon to release web series, Fruit Chaat
“There is nothing ‘motivational’ about this web series”
Who is Tanzila?
An artist, a traveller, a lover. I'm just someone who's exploring creativity and exploring the world from the lens of my own size and structure. I'm just trying to park myself in the industry to help others and create certain narratives that could be useful for the present and the future. I hope people can look at me and say, “If she can do that, we can also do it.”
At the moment, my mission is to create as many examples of being creative with disability as possible, to open as many doors as I can, to experiment, to just connect with as many organisations as I can and talk about disability touching different subjects. My projects are very diverse. The Woopie Town board game, the web series and my travel related content. This year I want to publish a lot of content on travelling with a disability with a push towards the industry to become more accessible. I'll resume my work on menstrual healthcare as well.
How did you get into acting?
Well, I didn't think I was an actor. I'm a producer and a writer. [Acting was accidental]. As a producer, when I had to hire someone to play the role of Shabana, I was looking for Tanzila - a girl who's [had similar experiences]. I personally auditioned 100 people myself. None of them had a disability. I was expecting people with disabilities to audition because if they did, I would have written roles for them. But we hardly have people [like me] so I had to hire myself.
Tell me a bit about the history of this series.
Four years ago, I met young director Moiz [Abbas], and we made a short film by the same name together. It garnered a lot of praise, won several awards and was used as educational material in different universities around the world. Since it was a good collaboration, we got back together again. And we flew to Lahore to work on it. In just a month, we gathered all the resources. I was under a lot of pressure doing various things like raising funds, putting things together, and also playing the lead. I had to be around during direction too to make sure that the script was being translated well on screen. So when we were finally able to shoot by the end of the day, I was always exhausted. And the shooting was happening when there was a lockdown in Lahore due to smog. So we were up against the government, we were up against the weather, we were up against a lot of people who sometimes tried to intimidate us because it's a commercial project, and they wanted us to use their resources. So my body was taking a toll. If you watch the web series, there is a point when my voice is gone. That's actually stress in my body, So I'm glad it’s over now.
But are you happy with the way it has turned out?
Yes, I think the effort has gone somewhere. If I look back, I can say that I will not put myself in this process again as it was out of my comfort zone. I will not produce and act at the same time. I will just write and go home.
What were the challenges you faced while filming?
My wheelchair itself was a character in the series, and [navigating] my disability was a challenge. I remember there was a scene where I had to fall off a step and it almost felt like a helicopter jump. I didn't know if I would be able to do it in front of so many people. And I kept telling the director that I would do it only once. Well, I did it four times. This is what the world is and you're not ready for it.
Sometimes I’m very passionate about things but it affects my health. Sometimes I don't take into account that I have a disability. It is unfair to my body. I sometimes think of myself as an able-bodied woman. I'm not. I do have backaches because of long hours in the wheelchair. There were times when my knees hurt, and my body was begging me to stop and go to sleep. But sometimes we were shooting up to six in the morning and I was back on the makeup chair at 10 am. So I felt that I needed to control my passion. I don’t want to set a wrong example for other people with a disability that the only way to get recognised is to hustle and go beyond your body. Don't do that. When you do these projects, be mindful that’s not the only way to move forward in life, it’s unfair to you.
Fruit Chaat is such a cute name. What’s the reason behind the name?
I love fruit chaat. During Ramadan we have it to break the fast. The name actually happened when we were making the short film. In the climax of the film, the girl [who is a fruit seller] says,” I don't just sell fruit. I can make fruit chaat,” by which she meant that she could add her own magic to something and be more than just a fruit seller. And she's actually saying this to a guy she likes, indicating to him to give her a chance and tell his mom that she could work in the kitchen too and is more than what he might think. That's why the name Fruit Chaat. The series has the same name because it's an extension of the story.
What are the themes that you have tried to address with the series?
One thing that I was obsessed with during the web series was public spaces. And that happened because of my own experience as a global traveller, the power of being in public spaces, being on the street, and being visible. This wasn't true back when I was making the short film because I hadn't travelled solo or lived alone. When the series was being shot, I wanted Shabana to be on the road, and to use public transport. She's on the street, which is not common in Pakistan, but I wanted to set that precedent. I also wanted to highlight that when you work as a disabled person, there are elephants in the room that go unaddressed.
Then, friendship was a very important theme because friends play a huge role in everyone’s life. They are the ones after your family, they are your world. They are the ones to carry your wheelchair and take you, and get you access. We have also explored love, independence and freedom - that as an individual, regardless of your gender, if you're a human, you are entitled to freedom. That's a basic human right.
What are the deficits that you have found in your environment that made you address these themes in the series?
The reason why I spoke about these themes is that inclusivity is not a Western thing. It's a very local thing. But the issue of inclusivity is half-baked. For example, a lot of companies introduce programs on disability but don’t invest in the issues of psychological safety or acceptance or breaking the stigma. So you hire me, but you still hate me. How do you expect me to do my best? I will leave this job, and go back to the system and now I can't even adjust to that system because I've faced this side of life. So these are the deficits where not a lot of thought is put into creating systems for people with disabilities.
Sometimes, friends can be overpowering because they're trying to protect you, but then they step the line and start thinking for you. And that's where the friendship gets a bit toxic as well, even though it's coming from a good place. There was an instance when once I was afraid to disagree with a friend as she was to help me come back home. So I couldn’t have an authentic discussion with her because I was dependent on her.
Did you bring in a lot of personal experiences into Shabana’s story?
It’s been a long journey, not just mine, but of other people I've met, a lot of books I've read and then a bit of imagination as well. I think that my personal experience triggered certain things such as how you create that environment where a friendship could be more healthy, or how I'm deified because of my disability, like I’m someone with special powers or something. You do enjoy that sometimes, but then it gets overwhelming. You want to be seen as a normal human being. Sometimes you want to be anonymous. At university, [as a wheelchair-user] I could never bunk class because everyone including the canteen people and security guards knew I was out of class. I realised that that wasn’t fair. Bunking is a part of the university experience. But I don’t have those stories to tell my children.
But Shabana is not me. Shabana has more confidence than I do. She still [believes] that she can do everything. I, on the other hand, am guarded because I've seen how the world behaves, I've seen policymakers, so I think I've become a bit more cynical. She's not.
One thing I want to say is that there's nothing motivational about this series. In real life, people with disabilities are on the losing end, they are not on the winning side. The series is as real as it can get. The dialogue, the jokes, the bluntness of the world, and [subtle messages] like, “You're not good enough. You can’t get this. You can’t do that. Get out,” are all there in the series.
What kind of disability representation have you seen in Pakistani media?
I have seen certain representations done in a very derogatory way. For example, people in wheelchairs are often depicted as being punished by god, while visually impaired individuals are shown as poor and disadvantaged. Regular, everyday lives are not portrayed. I'm also a regular person just living my life. There's nothing noble about my existence. I don’t have to be a special character in films. I get groceries, I make coffee, just like anyone else.
What is the future of the series? Are you planning another season?
I did think of a prequel to this series which would be about the school and college life of Shabana because I have so many stories about that. But at the moment, I'm writing another script, which has nothing to do with disability. There is just a very interesting storyline about immigrants living here in Sweden. I want to focus on my career as a writer for now.
Recommendations
Watch
The trailer of Fruit Chaat. The series will be available next week on the same channel.
Parenting and Autism: Real Stories of Autistic Young People and Their Parents, by Much Much Media. These rare conversations will give you a peek into their lives and an understanding of the parent-child dynamics in some Indian families.
Read
Discover artist and poet Salil Chaturvedi’s evocative and sensitive poetry. In this collection, he has “put together a cycle of 18-odd poems for the fun of it, linking one to the other through hyperlinked words.” Read and tell him what you think!
Listen
Amay and the Braille Trail is a story written and read by Upasana Makati, the founder of White Print magazine. Both kids and adults will enjoy listening to this story about the everyday life of a little blind boy.
Resources
WHO’s latest guide, “Health Equity for Persons With Disabilities” is an important resource for health writers and journalists for understanding inclusion in healthcare.
For India’s disability budget discussions, follow the Politics and Disability Forum and listen to this talk by Radio Udaan (in Hindi).
That’s all for today. Keep writing and don’t forget to fill out the 5-minute survey to help me serve you better. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Until next time.
Warmly,
Priti