Tannishtha Chatterjee: Life, Love & Stage 4 Cancer | InFocus | THR India

In this deeply moving InFocus interview for The Hollywood Reporter India, host Sneha Menon Desai sits down with actress-filmmaker Tannishtha Chatterjee for an inspiring conversation about resilience, creativity, and the power of human connection. Tannishtha opens up about her extraordinary journey of completing her directorial film "Full Plate" while battling stage 4 oligometastatic cancer, sharing how she managed post-production work between chemotherapy cycles. The interview reveals her remarkable strength as she balanced caring for her 70-year-old mother and 9-year-old daughter while fighting for her own life, having lost her father to cancer just a year and a half earlier.

What emerges from this conversation is a testament to the transformative power of love and community support. Tannishtha discusses how her circle of female friends, including luminaries like Shabana Azmi, Dia Mirza, and Vidya Balan, created an incredible support system that helped her through the darkest moments. She speaks candidly about learning to be vulnerable for the first time, becoming "fearless and shameless" in asking for help, and finding humor even in the hospital rooms during treatment. The interview also explores how completing "Full Plate" – a film about a Muslim homemaker's transformation – became part of her healing journey, with the film now headed to its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, marking a full-circle moment of triumph over adversity.