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A still from Designed by Preeti. Jay Charan and Rashmi Rustagi play the lead characters. | Designed By Preeti
On December 7, India Currents attended a private virtual screening of the Bay Area-produced feature film Designed By Preeti. The film is the brainchild of writer and executive producer Rashmi Rustagi, who also plays the lead character Preeti. Gayatri Bajpai directed the film, which features a cast of talented Bay Area actors, mostly from the South Asian diaspora.
The English-language film is set in the Bay Area community and provides commentary on many social issues relevant to that community.
A film rooted in the Bay Area
The film tells the story of Preeti (Rustagi), an Indian-American woman living in the Bay Area, trapped in a toxic marriage with her husband Ajay (played by Jay Charan). With their daughter away at university, Preeti has to fend for herself after her husband becomes physically violent.
Supported by her friends Sonia (Anna Khaja), Revathi (Sangeetha Agrawal), and Harry (Puneet), she finds her footing as an independent woman by leaning into her talent for fashion design. The ups and downs of this journey, and the relationships she makes in the process form the crux of this heartening film.
Rustagi, who has acted in films like The Avengers and TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Atypical, and Never Have I Ever, first started writing the film’s story during the pandemic, she shared during an interactive session following the screening. She then assembled the cast and crew, including award-winning Vancouver and Los Angeles-based director Gayatri Bajpai.
“The film is inspired by the true stories of three of my friends and acquaintances,” said Rustagi. “It’s a mishmash of the three stories and as the actors came on set, they brought a lot of themselves into the film, and the lines changed as well.”
Production took place in the Bay Area, with a strenuous schedule of 18 consecutive days of shooting, followed by four days of pickup shots. “The biggest challenge was starting with a week of daytime scenes, and then going to hard overnight scenes, which went from 10 pm to 10 am!” said Bajpai.
Now at the end of the post-production stage, Rustagi is considering multiple distribution offers, and submitting the film to film festivals around the world. The film has already been accepted to the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal, which will take place in April-May 2025.
“We need to raise our boys right”
At the heart of the film is a rallying cry against the oppression of women who find themselves in abusive relationships and marriages, and fall victim to domestic violence. Through the dialogue, the women in the film touch upon the struggles of coming to the U.S. as newlywed brides, with husbands who they often do not know very well before marriage. Despite financial comforts, these women find themselves in a new, intimidating environment vulnerable to domestic violence and abuse. Often, they are unable to leave because of familial obligations and the responsibility of raising their children.
“We need to raise our boys right, that’s the key message,” said Rustagi, commenting on this issue as it exists within the diaspora. “Based on the stories of women I’ve heard here, and from sons and daughters of immigrants like us, the boys are still not being raised right, to appreciate women in our culture. “
The script also weaves in commentary on other elements of Indian-American culture, both positive and negative. On the one hand, when she is at her lowest, Preeti finds support from close friends within the desi community. On the other hand, she finds herself ostracized because of the stigma surrounding domestic violence.
The film also lays bare other regressive attitudes within diaspora communities, like anti-Black racism and prejudice against the LGBTQ community.
“We decided to take on that topic on purpose because it very much exists in our society,” said Rustagi. “We felt like those two elements enhanced the story further.”
Written by Tanay Gokhale.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and India Currents).
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