Neeraj Pandey: “I want people to love my characters!”

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He is the quiet magician—easily among the five finest directorial discoveries even after nearly a quarter of the new millennium has passed. On August 2, he is set to release a unique love story, Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha, featuring Ajay Devgn and Tabu.

For the unversed, Neeraj Pandey thundered in with one of the finest movies of that decade, A Wednesday!, in 2008. Though he has not directed every production (with partner Shital Bhatia) since, he has directed a select package of brilliant cinema that includes Special 26, arguably among Hindi cinema’s finest ‘con’ films, Baby on espionage, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story on a real-life cricket hero and the now-cult espionage thriller franchise on the web, Special Ops.

I have always believed that his only directorial flop, Aiyaary, set the tone for that franchise, and at that time, Pandey had admitted that he had wished to experiment with that movie narrative format for an espionage drama.

On the other hand, Neeraj has also co-produced films that include Toilet—Ek Prem Katha, Rustom, the Baby spin-off Naam Shabana, the Marathi film, Taryanche Bait, a Bengali movie named The Royal Bengal Tiger, the lovely short, Ouch! and three series—Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, The Freelancer and the acclaimed Secrets shows on Discovery Plus, which include Secrets of Sinauli, Secrets of The Koh-i-noor and Secrets of the Buddha Relics. In most of his Hindi work, he has also been a writer or co-writer.

Completely unassuming and affable to a fault, Neeraj, today, is more of  a friend than a distinguished celebrity. Here is sharing a cordial chat with him at his office. The meeting was held in July when the film was to release earlier. And at that time, he had also made me listen to all his music tracks for the movie, composed by the Oscar-winning M.M. Kreem. So we start off on that musical note.

Excerpts from an interview follow.

The song, Tu, seen in your film’s trailer, has no lip-sync.

I am juxtaposing the feelings of a young boy and young girl with the outside world From Janmasthami and Diwali to Holi, it is about the relationship of a young boy and a young girl. Sukhwinder Singh represents the world. Javed Ali is my characters’ voice, I have never done lip-sync and never will, unless the character is of a singer. Kreem-saab composed the mukhda first, which was written by Manoj Muntashir. We then figured out the antaras.

You have new voices in Ae dil zaraa.

Yes, it is the theme song and will be in three parts in the film. While Sunidhi Chauhan and Jubin Nautiyal sing for the elder pair, Amala Chebolu—who is popular down South and had recorded a scratch that I decided to retain—and Rishabh, have done the younger version. Kreem-saab is like family and we always decide on our music easily. We like music that will stay with us, and so also with the listeners. We do music that we like, minus older references like most filmmakers ask for.

But the real ace is Kisi roz, a classical song that is so welcome and rare.

(Smiles) Yes, and can you believe that it was composed in 5-7 minutes? It was Kreem-saab’s first tune for the situation I gave him, and is based on Raag Yaman. We called up Manoj at 10 in the morning and he wrote the lyrics for the antaras that Kreem-saab composed later. This is sung by Maithili Thakur.

So the songs have been done ‘live’.

Yes. We recorded all of them at Kochy.

This is your first love story, and the title is so intriguing.

(Smiles again) I have been receiving feedback that after a long time there is an unusual title that still sticks. It is the first title I thought of after the script was ready. As for the love story part, people tell me that my M.S. Dhoni… was more of a love story than a cricket film!

What made you think of this story of separation and reunion? What makes you choose any story?

Ideas can come any time. You talk to someone, some incident happens and your mind starts going into a particular direction. You have to spin a yarn, make a back-story. It must have happened like that. But I knew I had to make a musical as the songs had to stand out, support the narrative and move the script forward. Without the songs, I would need long dialogues each time!

In general, therefore, it is the story that fires me. And the most traumatic thing is when I work for months on it and it does not excite me anymore and I have to pull the plug on it!

For a musical, you have only three songs!

There are five if you include the three parts of Ae dil zaraa!

Why have two lead actors and actresses instead of de-aging Ajay Devgn and Tabu or making younger stars look older later?

Until my film is believable, you won’t buy it. I have done all that in Dhoni and Special Ops but I did not want any distraction from my storytelling here. The gap was around 22 to 23 years! I want people to fall in love with my characters.

That needed casting keeping in mind Ajay and Tabu, and after they were signed, I guess.

Absolutely, though an acting skill-set was obviously needed too! We auditioned a lot of good actors, but I think that Shantanu Maheshwari and Saiee Manjrekar had that something extra that tipped the scales finally in their favor.

Ajay and Tabu have not only given hits as a romantic pair but without a love angle too, like Golmaal Again and the Drishyam franchise. What made you sign them?

Their very talent! I will not speak something as clichéd as they exceeded my expectations, because I already expected much from them as seasoned performers, but they have done something new.

Your cinematographer, Sudhir Palsane, has done extraordinary work, you mention, as have the entire technical team.

Yes, the locations were Mumbai, Bhopal and Bangkok, and I had to re-create the late 1990s and early 2000s. My experience on Special 26 helped. We got a 65 mm Arriflex camera from Germany. It gives a broader and much more visual information. My film is one of Sudhir’s finest works

How much is the creative involvement of your producers, and this time they are two more apart from Shital Bhatia?

They look into the production and I into the creative side. Of course, I do have their feedback and everything, and I do the same when someone else directs a film  that we may be producing.

Your films have never followed trends.

That is impractical anyway, given that any movie releases approximately two years or more after everything is planned and decided!

What next can we see from you?

The next in the Special Ops series, again jointly directed by Shivam Nair and me, is expected around September.

How much is fiction there, and how much is real?

My series and films on espionage are always inspired by real facts. I have access to people who are involved in some way or other, and then fiction takes over, Himmat Singh, Kay Kay Menon’s character, is himself an amalgamation of 6 to 7 people!

Which has been your most satisfactory work in the last 16 years?

(Laughs) Oh, that is yet to come. I would like to believe that. I think it is too soon to reflect on this. Maybe 10 years later, if I am still making movies, I can do my own appraisal!