Director Arunima Sharma On Capturing Chaos & Charm Of Modern Womanhood

Arunima Sharma’s filmmaking is deeply shaped by instinct, sharpened through two decades of observing cities, mundane conversations, emotional negotiations, and roller-coaster relationships. Her stories pulse with recognisable frustrations, contradictions, and joys, drawn from a world she knows intimately: the modern urban landscape and the women who move through it. 

That's what makes her a great filmmaker. Not the ability to create a fantastical escape from reality, but to make the audience see a part of their complex, multifaceted selves in the characters. 

"All of us look at the world differently," she explains in an interview with SheThePeople. "A director makes hundreds of decisions in a day, and those decisions come entirely from who you are."

She inhabits the same world as many of her characters - young city women negotiating messy emotions, modern relationships, and the desire to build something that resembles joy.

A love letter to nuance

Stepping into the fourth season of a much-loved series is not the easiest challenge for a filmmaker, but Arunima Sharma makes it seem like a walk in the park. 

Coming on board as the Lead Director of Four More Shots Please! Season 4, she was clear that her creative contribution needed to feel both fresh and familiar.

The show follows four urban women as they navigate friendship, careers, relationships, sex, money, and more. To this landscape, Arunima brings her very own sensitivity and emotional nuance.

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As a true-blue Mumbai girl, Arunima's diverse, contemporary worldview influences the stories she tells. She believes a director’s identity is inseparable from their work. 

This personal touch is also what allows her to explore emotional ambiguity with conviction. Her curiosity for human complexity drives her toward honest depictions of women on screen.

"I love exploring greys. Women rarely get the deliciousness of greys. Why can’t a woman be selfish as a character? Why can’t she make mistakes? Men have been afforded that space forever." -Arunima Sharma.

Arunima rejects the idea that female-led stories must carry moral cleanliness. "A story is not here to create only good characters," she says. "Our lives aren't like that. We aren't perfect."

Looking back at her career

Arunima's career has been shaped by defining shifts. During her time at Pune's FTII, she won the National Award for her 22-minute diploma film, 'Shyam Raat Seher' (Blue Dusk Dawn).

She credits this early validation with giving her confidence, but her real transformation came when Homi Adajania brought her on as associate director for Cocktail (2014).

"That set was a party!" she laughs. "It was a very fun, free place." That film did not just bring her exposure; it altered her understanding of collaboration and work ethics.

"Even though it was my first big Hindi film, I could give ideas so freely," she recalls. "That’s the work culture I want, where anyone, even a spot boy, can give a suggestion. You never know where a good idea comes from."

Another pivotal moment came years later, when Arunima shot Jee Karda (2023), her first long-format series, in her last trimester of pregnancy. 

"Shooting 12 to 14 hours a day, for 51 days straight, in the ninth month of pregnancy, I wasn’t sure I could do it. But when I did, I felt like I could do anything. It gave me so much confidence." -Arunima Sharma

The experience dismantled every warning she’d been given about reduced mental clarity or emotional instability. "I enter a film set, and I am able to do my work. That’s it."

Arunima Sharma's clarity is unwavering. In her world, stories should never be ignored. They should provoke, unsettle, comfort, challenge, and most of all, feel alive.

Her ideas about storytelling are personal but not sentimental, refined but not detached. "People can love you or hate you," she says. "But if they ignore you, that’s the worst thing."