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I was willing to wait for 5-10 years for Aamir Khan to be part of ‘Dangal’: Nitesh Tiwari
Nitesh Tiwari talks about waiting for a year for the conscientious Aamir Khan, the exhaustive process of putting the film together
New Delhi: Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal has been garnering a fair of share of attention though there’s still a couple of weeks left to its release. The biographical sports drama, based on the life of Haryanvi wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, whose daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari have achieved international fame in the sport, is touted to be the grand note on which the Indian movie box office is likely to close the year.
In an interview with Mint, adman-turned-director Nitesh Tiwari, who earlier helmed money-spinning children’s films Chillar Party (2011) and Bhootnath Returns (2014), talks about waiting for a year for the conscientious Khan, the exhaustive process of putting the film together and why this is a phenomenal, timeless story he isn’t nervous to bring out to the audiences. Edited excerpts:
How did the move from advertising to film direction happen? Did the experience in advertising help you in your film career?
Yes, it did. In fact, the technical requirements of the two processes are the same, it’s just that the format is different. The writing experience in advertising came in very handy when we were working on Chillar Party, which was my first screenplay and one that was very close to reality, the way I was used to with my advertising.
When I did Chillar Party, I was kind of managing both advertising and film direction. It’s easy when you’re only writing a screenplay. With direction, it’s not possible. So after Bhootnath Returns, I decided it was very difficult for me to manage both. I could have done it but I didn’t want to because I have a family. I want to spend a lot of time with my kids who are at one of the most beautiful ages of their lives. I didn’t want to miss out on that, I wondered why I should be killing myself when I can enjoy the best of both worlds. So I had to let go off advertising at that point of time.
Is it true that Disney approached you with the idea of Dangal? Did you know or read about Mahavir Phogat earlier?
I hadn’t heard of him or Geeta and Babita. These two friends of mine, Manish (Hariprasad) and Divya (Rao) from Disney UTV narrated the idea to me briefly. Of course, I said yes. If you were asked if you’d be interested in writing the story of a man who, in a place like Haryana, trained his daughters to become world-class wrestlers, you would want to know more about these people. The basic premise itself was so powerful that it immediately got me excited.
I first went to meet the family, learnt a little more about wrestling and got my team together—four of us who wrote Dangal for close to a year.
Did you bring up Aamir Khan’s name? Was he your first choice?
Yes. I went and narrated the script to him and he loved it, but didn’t know when he’d be able to do it. My response was if he was willing to do it, I was willing to wait for 5-10 years. It’s not every day that you write a script like Dangal and it’s not every day that Aamir Khan says he would want to be a part of it. I said we would wait, Dangal would wait, it’s a timeless story, doesn’t need to be told now. This was three years back. After a year, he said he’d like to hear the script again and gave me the go ahead.
At that time, I didn’t really rationalize it but his was the first name that came to my mind. There were a lot of factors involved because the kind of commitment required for Mahavir Singh’s role was humungous. And if you look at the film, Aamir sir has given two years of his time and undivided attention. I’m not even going into the performance and emotional aspects, only talking about the physical challenges. Probably because he’s known for doing these things in the past is why his name cropped up in my mind.
Filmmakers often tend to be in awe of the superstars they direct. Is it a challenge to push the actor in the star?
I’d be lying if I said a director like me would not be in awe of superstars like Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan (whom he directed in Bhootnath Returns). But these actors do not impose their stardom on you. For a director, there is nothing more gratifying than your lead actors going to such lengths to achieve the vision you had set out with. If Aamir sir had agreed to do the film but not actually agreed to put on weight and instead offer to wear a body suit, I wouldn’t have said no. But he’s not that kind of a star, he wouldn’t want to cheat.
When you’re narrating a real-life story, how difficult is it to maintain the balance between keeping the authenticity intact and making it cinematically appealing?
It is a tightrope walk, yes. The one thing you need to be careful about as a writer is that a real-life story need not have the kind of graph you’d want whereas your film story cannot be flat, it needs to have ups and downs. Characters like Mahavir Singh, Geeta and Babita have remained absolutely intact but we’ve created characters around them with which certain liberties have been taken to give a flavour to the story and make the film more commercial. People are going to spend time to come and watch it, they need to be entertained. Another thing we’ve kept in mind is that these subjects tend to get very heavy. So we’ve added a layer of humour to the entire story so it doesn’t sit very heavy with you. Also you need to filter a lot of information, you need to know what to hide, how much to tell and what to modify.
How did you get your female actors in place considering starring alongside a star like Aamir is such a challenge?
It is. But our audition process was so lengthy that by the time the girls were shortlisted, they had become extremely comfortable with Aamir sir. We had to find four girls—two older women and two children who would play their young versions so our task was doubly difficult. We couldn’t shortlist anyone unless certain parameters were ticked. First and foremost, the girls had to look like Aamir Khan’s daughters, then the younger ones had to look like the older ones. Of course, they had to be good actors because they had such important roles. After several rounds of auditioning and shortlisting, we checked their medical history because they had to wrestle, consulted a dietician to see if they could bulk up, met instructors to see if they would be safe when they do weights, and whether they are graceful in their athletic mannerisms. The final 10 shortlisted girls were made to train under our wrestling coach Kripa Shankarji to see if they could achieve what we wanted in 8-10 months. Then came the toughest part at least for some of them—they had to let off really beautiful hair.
This is a big film at the end of the day. Plus, Aamir Khan is known for not just hit but meaningful cinema. Does that put pressure on you?
It makes me excited. I might have been nervous or anxious if the response to the trailer and songs had not been good. I’m more excited and confident. It’s difficult to define it in a sentence but this is a father-daughter story with a wrestling backdrop. I think the audience will be able to take away many things from the film, it should be a phenomenal experience for them.
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Business NewsIndustryMediaI was willing to wait for 5-10 years for Aamir Khan to be part of ‘Dangal’: Nitesh Tiwari
First Published:7 Dec 2016, 10:24 PM IST
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