Speaking out with ‘Shut Up Sona’

Singer Sona Mohapatra’s documentary premiering at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne this month covers everything from protest art to gender disparity

Is Sona Mohapatra and Deepti Gupta’s documentary Shut Up Sona the kind of story you only get to tell once? “Let me tell you, there’s a ‘Please Sing Sona’ sequel that’s happening,” Mohapatra says of the film based on her ‘unrelenting fight for an equal space in modern day India’. Irony and wit are among the narrative devices of Shut Up Sona, which is currently getting its Australia premiere at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne this week. Originally slated to take place in theatres, a worrying wave of Covid-19 cases in the city caused organisers to launch it virtually. For Mohapatra — who had her own billboard at Times Square, New York, in July as part of the Spotify ‘Equal’ global campaign — and filmmaker-cinematographer Gupta, this was an addition to the tumultuous four-year journey of making, editing and showcasing the documentary. Slated to release on an OTT platform later this year in India, it shines the spotlight not just on the musician and the pushback she receives for being an outspoken, sometimes mercurial woman in India, but also the state of cultural discourse.