Talking about the unpredictable and volatile situation there, she passionately says, “It’s a war that is not supposed to happen in the 21st century. I know this may sound absurd, but two weeks ago, I had spoken to a friend in Germany who is a diplomat, and I had asked him, ‘Do you think I need to evacuate my family?’, and he said, ‘Of course not! Russia will never bomb Kyiv.’ And two weeks later, we have bombings every day! Ukraine is not just the cradle of culture, but agriculture as well.”
Dar has also been helping those stuck in Ukraine. She says, “There were around 130 students in Kyiv who reached out to me. As soon as I sent out an email to the Ministry of External Affairs, I immediately got a reply with a list of people with who the students could contact and co-ordinate. I forwarded the mail to the students, and the next day, I got to know that they were evacuated. That made me very happy because I believe I belong to both countries, I am as much a Ukrainian as I am an Indian.”
Remembering Kyiv fondly, she says, “Kyiv is the most beautiful and inspiring city. I have been to so many countries, but what is unique to Kyiv is this incredible combination of Western and Eastern cultures. It is an extremely old city, so the energy that each street, each brick has, has influenced me. It has influenced how I feel and the stories I tell. A lot of the ideas that I execute in my feature films and series come from how I was brought up. I was studying at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, which was a cradle to the most unique minds. I had some of the most interesting teachers who were absolutely in love with their profession. Even now, the way I run my production house is influenced by those times. The way I taught at a film school in Mumbai was inspired by my teachers in Kyiv.”
While she admits that it has been a challenging time, Dar is hopeful for a better future. “Yes, it has been very hard, but what’s incredible and what gives me hope is the human spirit. I have seen videos of a grandmother standing in front of a tank to stop it, or children who are hiding in shelters, but are trying to understand what their parents are going through. The amount of resistance that Ukraine has put up is truly remarkable.”
Summing up her thoughts on the current situation, she says, “We usually read books on the atrocities that have happened before, like the Holocaust, and wonder what would I do if I was in that situation? And our first reaction is that obviously, we would do the right thing. This is our time to do that. One day our kids will read books and ask us what did we do? Right now, it doesn’t matter where we come from, it’s about humanity. Together, we can save the world.”
