New Delhi, Jan 21 (PTI) The film that comes to mind when one looks at the premise of “The Great Indian Murder” is Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece “Rashomon”.
Tigmanshu Dhulia, who has directed the upcoming Disney+ Hotstar series, agrees Kurosawa’s film is the apt reference here.
“The Great Indian Murder” is an adaptation of author Vikas Swarup’s novel “Six Suspects”, which revolves around the murder of the son of a high-profile minister.
“‘Rashomon’ is the correct reference here,” said Dhulia, who has also adapted Swarup’s 2008 book.
Considered one of the greatest films ever made, “Rashomon” is a 1950 Japanese period movie which follows the story of a nobleman’s bride who is raped by a bandit. The nobleman is killed, or has possibly died by suicide.
Four characters — the bandit, the woman, the samurai and the woodcutter, who witnessed the episode — narrate their own version of what they ‘saw’.
“That’s there in the novel too because murder takes place at one venue, which is at a party. (Like ‘Rashomon’,) even in the series, we always come back to the scene of crime with a different point of view,” the series director told PTI in a Zoom interview.
Known for critically-acclaimed films like “Paan Singh Tomar”, “Haasil” and the “Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster” franchise, Dhulia made his digital debut in 2019 with season one of Disney+ Hotstar shows “Out of Love” and “Criminal Justice”.
The National Award winner, who is a family friend of producer Priti Vinay Sinha, said he knew she had acquired the rights to the book.
“I was also greedy to board as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was based on his book ‘Q&A’ and that film by Danny Boyle won so many Oscars. I thought I am getting to make a project on the same writer’s second novel, so let’s grab it with both hands!” he added.
Dhulia, 54, described “Six Suspects” as an edge-of-the-seat read, which took a lot of time to adapt to screen.
The director, who has often penned his film scripts, said there was a time during his days in the late 1980s at Delhi’s National School of Drama where all he did was translate English plays to Hindi.
“I was the worst actor in my class. But I was 19 and didn’t know better, so I used to blame the writing… how do you expect anyone to do realistic acting from this heavy worded material?” Dhulia, also known for his acting chops in “Gangs of Wasseypur” films, “Zero” and “Raat Akeli Hai”, said.
“So I started translating English plays into Hindi. Our drama school’s library is very resourceful. Initially, all I did was adaptations of many plays when I used to come home to Allahabad where we would do plays. So I was familiar with the exercise of adaptation,” the theatre postgraduate added.
What’s easy with a book adaptation is that the director already has that “Eureka!” moment to go ahead with the story.
“Your job is to find many such Eureka moments in the given material and tie them together. What’s difficult is the thought. When a character in the novel is thinking about something you have lines written about it; the challenge is to film it for screen.” To achieve that, he created the characters of DCP Sudha Bharadwaj and CBI officer Suraj Yadav — played by Richa Chadha and Pratik Gandhi — who don’t exist in the novel.
“In the novel there is murder and mystery, but no investigation. So we thought it was a good way to incorporate two different, strong characters — male and female. They will be used as a medium to bring the thought processes of the suspects to the fore,” he pointed out.
Interestingly, Chadha’s character is named Sudha Bharadwaj. Asked if the part is a nod to the real-life activist, Dhulia said it’s all about having names that rhyme.
Bharadwaj, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, was released from prison on bail in December, after spending three years in jail.
“Her case is sub judice. She’s out on bail, so I’d like to refrain from saying any more. But, she is a symbol in her own way,” the director added.
According to reports, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub was supposed to star in “The Great Indian Murder” but was dropped from the show following the controversy around Prime Video series “Tandav”.
Dhulia, who also starred in “Tandav”, called the turn of events “very tragic”.
“Zeeshan is my junior from drama school, he is also my neighbour. The situation was like that at that time that we were advised (to let him go). We were working with so many junior artistes… What if someone did something? Would we handle the situation or shoot the show? Unwantedly, we had to go through this decision. It is regrettable.” “The Great Indian Murder”, backed by Ajay Devgn under his banner ADF and Sinha for RLE Media, will start streaming from February 4. PTI RDS SHD SHD
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