1 minute agoAuthor: Ashish Tiwari
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After the films ‘Fighter’ and ‘Operation Valentine’, now the story of ‘Balakot Air Strike’ is going to be shown in the web series ‘Strategy: Balakot and Beyond’. Directed by Santosh Singh, this series will feature Lara Dutta, Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi, Jimmy Shergill and many stars in important roles. Recently, during a special conversation with Divya Bhaskar, director Santosh Singh called the issue of nepotism and outsiders a useless discussion.
Tell us about ‘Ranneethi: Balakot and Beyond’, what kind of series is it?
The series is based on the 2019 Pulwama attack. How did the Pulwama attack happen, what happened behind it? How did we respond to the Pulwama attack by attacking Balakot? How did Pakistan react to it? How did our pilots get caught there and how to get them back? We have shown all these events in 9 episodes in an interesting way. Each episode will be around 30 – 35 minutes.
Director Santosh Singh
This series has many veteran actors like Lara Dutta, Ashutosh Rana, Jimmy Shergill, Ashish Vidyarthi. What was the atmosphere like on the set?
These people are great and experienced artists. It was a lot of fun working with such actors. If you tell him one thing, he will do ten things. It seemed like everyone was such a big senior and big artist. How will they be controlled? But these are the artists who surrender. Worked the way I wanted.
What has been the most challenging part of this series?
The most challenging part of this series is the research. It was not that any book has been written on this incident. Whatever we have come to know has been brought to light by the news. We read news articles and also contacted everyone who knew about the incident. Went to the actual location. Talked to local people there. In this way we collected a lot of data and gave it to our writing team. Everyone worked hard together.
Films like ‘Fighter’ and ‘Operation Valentine’ have dealt with the same subject, how do you see your series as different?
We were the first to start working on this topic. Last year it was supposed to be brought on 15th August. But the series had a lot of VFX, which required a lot of work. Films like ‘Fighter’ and ‘Operation Valentine’ have each shown that version in their own way. I think we will be different from them because this is a series. We didn’t have a time limit of two hours. We got a chance to tell the story in full detail. We have tried not to make it unrealistic in any way. It will tell what is real. I believe that shouting does not bring patriotism, even without this we can instill patriotism in people’s hearts.
In which locations was it shot?
Apart from Mumbai, Punjab, Patiala, Jammu Kashmir, Delhi, we have shot this series in Serbia. Many films have been shot in Serbia.
You created a successful series like ‘Broken But Beautiful’ with Vikrant Massey, then did you know that it would reach such a big place today?
Vikrant is a very good actor and a loving person. It feels great that he is touching such heights with every film and series. Earlier I was not thinking of directing this series. At that time I was working as a first assistant in ‘Brahmastra’ and was in Bulgaria for two months. When I came back from there I thought that I don’t want to work as an assistant anymore.
I was trying to work in an independent direction. At that time I was going to make a short film. Then I got a call from my friend Neeraj Kothari. He was making a series with another director. But he was not getting things right. Sent me to read the script. At that time there was no question that I had to direct. I loved the script. I told Neeraj that I have read, what should I do? Then Neeraj said I want you to direct it.
Before this you have also done series like Ekta Kapoor’s ‘Apaharan 2’ and ‘Fitrat’?
I started with Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms. You can call this the circle of life. When I thought about working in the industry and was struggling. I then started my career as a trainee assistant director with Balaji Telefilms serial ‘Kusum’. My debut direction also started with Balaji’s series ‘Apaharan 2’ and ‘Fitraat’. If I get a chance to work again, I will do it again.
When you were doing ‘Wake Up Sid’, did you ever think that a film like ‘Animal’ would be made and that Ranbir Kapoor would be seen in the film?
Didn’t think about it at all then. You won’t understand until you see. As Ranbir has played an action character for the first time in Animal. It is very different and fun. He is such an actor that he can do all kinds of roles. He is a very experienced actor.
There is a lot of talk of nepotism in the industry, you are an outsider yourself. How was your experience?
I do not enter into the subject of nepotism and I do not believe in it. Nepotism can only get you in. After that it depends on your talent. This happens in every industry. A businessman’s son joins his father’s business. A politician’s son will join politics. I think this definitely provides a platform. But further depends on your hard work and how talented you are.
Ekta Kapoor is considered a task master, how was the experience of working with her? That’s right, Ekta madam is a complete task master. It is their way of doing things. It depends on you how you crack their function. If you can do this you will never feel like a task master while working with them. to work with. Like a coconut it is hard on the outside and soft on the inside.
How was your experience with Karan Johar?
From ‘Wake Up Sid’ to ‘Brahmastra’, many years of my life have been spent in religion. Learned a lot there. Karan is very different and sweet person. They don’t say anything to anyone. Has a very good command over emotion and music. I don’t think anyone else has such a grip.
When people like you come from outside. What kind of support do you get if you start working in the industry?
When I started in 2006, it was very tough. Be it TV or movies at that time. At that time there was no OTT etc. It was very difficult to get admission at that time. There were many problems when I was trying. I thought I could get many opportunities. He used to go around Balaji. He used to stand outside Ram Gopal Varma’s factory all day hoping to meet someone. It was very difficult at that time. Now things are totally different. If you are also running YouTube then you can make your name in it too. Today there are many platforms to showcase talent. Now you can make a movie sitting at home on your phone.
What do you consider to be the biggest struggle of your career?
It was the beginning when I didn’t know anyone. The cameraman in my neighborhood was Sudeep Chatterjee’s assistant. He used to accompany them on the sets during the summer vacations. From there the hobby of story telling and directing also started. After that I wandered from street to street looking for an opportunity? In those days newspapers used to publish a lot of advertisements for film jobs. Later it was revealed that it was all a hoax. There were no mobile phones at that time. I got a call from Balaji twice on my home landline and both times I was out. But by chance I was at home when the call came for the third time. Once you join the system, roads begin to open automatically.