Think of filmmakers in Bollywood who make spy / espionage thrillers and you can come with just a handful of names. Neeraj Pandey figures in that list. The filmmaker has made this genre a huge hit among the Indian audience. His debut web series, Special Ops, promises to be an edgy, interesting thriller too. The audience has great faith in the filmmaker’s ingenuity because he is known to keep them on their toes.
The Hotstar Special, which will start streaming from March 17, stars Kay Kay Menon, Muzammil Ibrahim, Meher Vij and Divya Dutta. It is believed that the series is based on the 2001 Indian Parliament terror attack but Neeraj says that more than the attack it focuses on the backdrop.
He gives us a peek:
Since the 2001 terror attack happened, a lot of theories emerged and lot of developments took place. Did you have to rework on the script?
Not much. What we say in the series is exactly coming out right now. There was more than what meets the eye that day and certain puzzles didn’t add up. There was another angle to the whole story and that’s exactly the series builds up on.
Kay Kay Menon plays such a powerful role after many years. How was the collaboration?
It’s been such a good collaboration. We were looking towards working together after a long time and when the opportunity presented itself, I spoke to him. Somewhere half way through, we were writing the series with him in mind, which shows on screen. He is a fabulous actor and has done a terrific job. This is something you will see him doing after a very long time.
You use statistics, and incidents as a reference — does research play an important role in your films?
Since we have chosen to say stories in this particular genre, the onus sort of falls on us. To build our narratives, we believe that it helps to do research. It helps the entire narrative and brings a certain amount of credibility to whatever we want to portray or convey. It always helps to say things in detail when you are working on a subject like this because a vital piece of information might come out, which could be important to the screenplay writing. Both the research and screenplay writing work hand-in-hand. More often than not, one is helping the other and that’s the reason we acknowledge the importance and relevance of both.
There is a certain kind of expectation from your espionage thrillers. Do you feel a sense of responsibility?
Yes, we do and it’s not just to do with spy thrillers but we feel the responsibility in whatever story we decide to tell. I have always acknowledged and appreciated the fact that there is at least an audience waiting. We try to live up to their expectations in every project, sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail.
Because you make films of a certain genre, how do you separate your political beliefs from the subject at hand?
I like to keep the two things different — my political beliefs and the stories I tell. But sometimes, there is an overlap. Whenever I am telling a story, I try to stay true to the story and let my characters do the talking rather than me doing it, which would be wrong. I also try to be as sensitive to the characters in the stories we choose to narrate.
The country, right now, is witnessing a lot of anti-Islamic sentiment. Did you tone down or filter your content keeping the current situation in mind?
Not just now but always. Like you mentioned that we are supposed to be responsible storytellers, so I like to take care of that bit as much as possible and I have maintained that right from our first film. In A Wednesday, we felt that Naseer’s (Naseeruddin Shah) character didn’t need to be named. It’s been our core belief and we have moved in that particular direction. I have always been cognizant of it and try to be as sane as possible in the telling.
You are making a film on Chanakya with Ajay Devgn. Chanakya’s life and lessons are humongous, how have you filtered it?
We will start making the film by end of this year. You have to wait for the film but I can say that it’s a challenge because it’s going to be our first historical in that sense and biopic on him. We want to convey how Chanakya thought and the way he thought. Here’s a man who had a unique vision about things and was a great strategist. The film is a celebration of his life.
