In a recent interview, Dar Gai, a Ukrainian filmmaker and the intimacy director of the 2022 film ‘Gehraiyaan’, shared her family’s ordeal in war-hit Ukraine.

Although Dar resides in Mumbai with her husband, she originally hails from Kyiv, Ukraine. In conversation with The Times of India, Dar elucidated how her family members have faced several challenges since the Russian invasion.

“My parents tried to leave Kyiv for several days, but they couldn’t because there was a lot of traffic as many people were trying to get to safer places. However, they later went to our village, which is around 45 minutes away from Kyiv,” Dar told The Times of India. 

The filmmaker also shared how her grandmother refused to abandon her homeland and decided to fight in the war. 

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“My grandmother, who is 78, refused to leave from there because she said, ‘Who will fight here? I want to fight. I don’t want to leave.’ So, she is in there with my stepfather. My mother and brother travelled to the border to send the women and kids across. They are on their way back to stay with my grandmother. However, the bridge that connects our village to other roads was bombed, so they cannot get to the village. They are stuck somewhere in the middle of Ukraine, trying to find out if there’s some safe way to go back to Kyiv,” she added. 

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Before relocating to Mumbai, Dar lived in Kyiv for over two decades. She then decided to move to India to venture into cinematic filmmaking. She directed plays in Gwalior’s Scindia School and later taught screenwriting in Mumbai. Dar directed two films in 2018. She also worked as an intimacy director in ‘Gehraiyaan’, a 2022 romance flick starring Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Pandey, and Dhairya Karwa.