Uttera Singh On Working As Actor, Writer, Director And Producer In ‘Pinch’: ‘ I Felt A Bit Overwhelmed’

Uttera Singh has received high praise from the international audience for her movie ‘Pinch’. Apart from starring in it, she is also serving as the film’s writer, director and producer. For the unversed, ‘Pinch’ is a deeply personal and culturally rich mother-daughter dramedy set in India. In an exclusive interview with News24, Uttera talks about receiving a good response from the international audience, multitasking, releasing ‘Pinch’ in India and much more.

While sharing why she chose the title ‘Pinch’ for her film, Uttera says, “I wanted it to be catchy, simple, provocative, but yet mysterious, and I think that was the intention. And if you get a chance to see the film, you will see why we chose the title.”

‘Pinch’ received a good response at the Tribeca Film Festival and gained recognition for its interesting premise. Reacting to the positive reception, she adds, “To be honest, it was very emotionally overwhelming because making any independent film or any independent project takes a lot of effort. Brick by brick, you try to build anything. It just took a long time. But we’re here, and we wouldn’t be here, because without our community in Indore, where I shot and filmed this movie, people I got to work with an incredible crew. Incredible cast. All thanks to them.”

Even though Pinch is set in India, the movie got a good response from the international audience before its release in India. Sharing how she just wanted to bring an honest story to life, Uttera shares, “We see movies from all over the world and are able to relate to them. In the end, we’re all humans having a big human experience. The intention was to tell a story as honestly as possible, so people could relate to it. And thankfully, the international audience has also been very much relating to it and resonating with it.”

Uttera has donned many hats for her movie ‘Pinch’. Apart from starring in it, she is also the director, writer and producer. Revealing how she dealt with different responsibilities, she shares, “There were a lot of moments when I felt a bit overwhelmed with all of that, and I have respect for each of those positions. Writers, directors, producers and actors; everybody is a very important part of the puzzle every single piece. There were some days, but I ever thought that if it all goes down so I had to keep going and keep it together. Just know that I trust the story and every time I would just come back to being like, okay, I trust the story. And I want to tell it. Now, I’m going to do everything in order to tell the story.”

The actress also expresses her excitement about bringing Pinch to India. She says, “I’m very excited and I can’t wait. I just want to show it to our audience. And you know, it’s completely in Hindi. It has incredible actors like Geeta Agrawal, Sunita Rajwar, Sapna Sand, Badri Chavan, and Nitish Panday. I can’t wait to share it with India and our community.”

Many independent filmmakers have shared their struggles in releasing their projects in India. Uttera emphasises how both audiences, studios and distributors should support independent films. She adds, “I truly believe that the audiences want a good story in the end, and our audience is ready to support even an independent project if they get an opportunity to see it. It’s because of the audiences where they took Lapataa Ladies or 12th Fail. Even though it had good actors in it, I think because people believed in the films. I want our distributors and studios to support more independent films because there is an audience. People want to watch good, interesting things, so we should be supporting more independent art in general all around the world.”