Snigdha Kapoor – Look Like You

We had the opportunity to interview Snigdha Kapoor, the filmmaker of Look Like You. Look Like You will be screening at the Utah Film Festival on February 11th at the Towne Hub in American Fork Utah.

What was the inspiration to make Look Like You?

Having experienced adoption in my family, I have always questioned what parenthood means. In a predominantly conservative South Asian diaspora, women carry the expectations of motherhood and the burden of shame and stigma around their sexual expression. As someone who grew up thinking fluidly, rejecting the limiting traditions of my culture, I was at a stage in life where I was exploring parenthood for myself. This exploration phase reinforced for me our society’s binary views on sexuality, reproduction, parenting, and gender.

I got drawn to understand and depict a birth mother’s perspective because, during my initial research, that perspective was absent from the adoption dynamic and prone to the harshest judgments. After researching and interviewing those involved with the adoption process from all sides, I was inspired to tell the story from a queer South Asian lens from a nonjudgmental point of view, pushing us to reconsider the normativity of family, sexuality, and parenting.

From idea to completion, how did this production change?  

We were scheduled to film in April 2020 in Upstate New York. Because of COVID-19, we lost our funding. When we found a window to shoot the film in the summer of 2021, we cut down on the locations saving costs and helping the story become even more contained and intimate. Most of the post-production took place virtually, and my editor, Chithra, and I would be in different continents at times, so we found new ways to collaborate with the team.

What was the biggest challenge in getting Look Like You made? 

There wasn’t one big challenge, but many small ones. We lost funding due to COVID, and I didn’t know when I’d get to film this project. One of my producers was stuck in India, and we didn’t know if the cast would return to film the project. When we did start the pre-production, the guidelines and protocols around COVID were still evolving. COVID pushed us to find new ways of production- one of them being rehearsals, especially with a child actor one has never worked with before. With Ryder, our seven-year-old actor, it was vital for me to build a relationship with him and gain his trust, more so because of the film’s sensitive subject matter. Ryder was outside of NY at the time, and I couldn’t spend time with him in person. After speaking with his mom, we decided to spend time over zoom. Ryder and I did science experiments and chatted about his dog, whom he loves. I was most worried about Ryder’s comfort on set, but it worked out in the end.

What do you think is the most important takeaway from Look Like You?

Look Like You is a love story of a family. There are tensions, heartbreaks, and differences in views and beliefs, but there’s also love. In a world that is diverging in its ideologies, through this film, I want the audience to reflect on our shared desire for belonging and acceptance for who we are. As COVID taught us, in the end, empathy and compassion are what connect us.

If you could have a do-over with your film, is there anything that you would do differently? If so, what would that be?

I wouldn’t want a do-over, but I would take a lot of learnings from this project and apply them in my next one. We had scheduled 10-hour days, and I learned how challenging filming car scenes are. The light constantly changes, continuity gets affected, the car, of course, moves, and unless you have the budget to rent a sophisticated car rig, the shortest of scenes can take much longer than you’d expect. I would plan my days better when I have car scenes, which I actually do in my upcoming film.

What do you have next in the works?

I’m currently in India, building my team for a quirky coming-of-age story set in India from a gender-non-confirming child’s point of view.

How can we learn more about you and your projects?

You can follow my website snigdhakapoor.com