Namrata Singh Gujral

One woman somewhere in the world, dies of breast cancer every minute," says Namrata Singh Gujral, director of 1 a Minute, a docu-drama on breast cancer that premiered yesterday. The debutant director-producer lost two aunts to breast cancer and was diagnosed with it herself three years ago.  She therefore, decided to make a movie to create awareness about breast cancer.

"I felt that the journey of a person going through the cancer should be captured correctly," she says. "And the only person who could do justice to it was someone who had gone through it. So I decided to take up the challenge," she says explaining the reason for making the movie. Namrata started shooting the movie while going through her third chemotherapy treatment.

"There's nothing special about what I have done. I am sure, any human in my situation would have done the same," Namrata says modestly. She thinks that when humans face adversity, they find the strength to face it and are inspired to do something about it. "A lot of women in the movie are friends of mine. That gave me more reasons to put this together. I felt I should make use of my access to them for a good cause," she says

The first half of the docu-drama has women- including celebrities like Lisa Ray, Barbara Mori, Mumtaz and Priya Dutt- who have been affected by cancer directly or indirectly talking about their experiences. The second half is the story of a woman's journey through the cancer.

"The experience was great, but a lot of work. Anything in life that is worth something is never easy," she says. She will direct again, provided the script is interesting, says the graduate from University of West Florida. Namrata has acted in an NBC series Passions, CBS series Family Law and Kaante, a Bollywood movie. In 2005, she went on to start UniGlobe Entertainment, a production studio.

On her first time as a producer, "getting funds for a movie on women and cancer was not easy. No one saw it as a good business deal," she says. But she decided to go ahead with it anyway, used her savings account and "made use of my friendships with the women who acted in the movie," she says about the project that was cathartic for her. 
All proceeds from the ticket sales of the movie will go to the Nargis Dutt Memorial Charitable Trust. So, "please watch the film to support the cause," she says. L