I am travelling in India right now taking a break, while my editor, Jill Bilcock is getting the assembly ready. Which essentially means that she is interpreting the masses of material I shot into something that actually makes emotional and narrative sense to view !! A film is always..

first interpreted at the script level. Then re-interpreted when it is shot, and then finally reinterpreted when it is edited together. That is why there has to be great empathy between the Director and the Editor. It is a relationship that must be completely devoid of the ego – and both must be two sides of the same coin.
I have that relationship with Jill. She is my mother, my sister, my best friend and comrade in arms when we get to the edit stage. I can read into her voice, I can see assent or dissent in eyes. According to Jill I am most voluble and coherrent in my complete silences !!
On the 4th September Jill finishes her interpretation of the the film. It will, we estimate, be just under 3 hours long, and then Jill and I spend the next 3 months locked in one room tussling, having moments of joy, moments of despair. She will at times hate me and love me. I too will do the same.
This process is called the Director’s Cut.
During this we will have experimented with music and with sound. The template for the music and sound will already have been laid down by the time we come to record the sound and execute the sound design,
So on we go,
Love
Shekhar