‘Anything that’s pre-planned loses a certain sense of truth’: Homi Adajania

Excerpts:

How did you come up with the idea, with its Wild West feel?

This idea struck me a long time ago when I was roaming around the salt pans of Kutch. There I came across people who temporarily work at one place before they move again. That’s when I thought what if women run the show that male members, in a family, are unaware of. In the middle of nowhere, they are running this drug cartel. But the story is ultimately about succession and how power changes people. These places – deserts of Rajasthan and parts of Kutch and Ladakh – are like our Wild West. The environment is harsh and brutal.

It seems like you had a lot of fun doing this show.

Too much fun. The collective energy of our team was infectious. Every project is special but while making this we became one mad family. I had never made a web-series before. I took to the format quite easily in spite of several challenges. We tried to shoot it more or less in a linear fashion. A web-series allows you to live longer with each character than a movie. That helped etch out the characters in a more wholesome way. For instance, Dimple’s character has certain mannerisms and eventually Radhika Madan as her daughter emulates those. As a creative person, I liked that there is no usual Friday pressure regarding the box-office collection. Also, there is a lot of creative freedom.

Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo is Homi Adajania’s debut web-series.

Do you always have Dimple Kapadia in mind while working on a new project?

I don’t have a choice. When I work on a new project, there would be a phone call from her asking about her role. Like Savitri, her character on the show, she puts a gun to my head. She knew about this idea long before I started working on it. She is like a child. She approaches each of her characters like it’s her first time. This is a complex character and far removed from all the characters she has done before. She learns her lines and rehearses sincerely.

Does your proverbial Parsi humour seep into everything you do?

It is part of my instinct. I don’t like to be over prepared about how I want to tell a story. Or, how something will play out on the sets and what the actors would bring to it. Anything that’s pre-planned loses a certain sense of truth. Maybe I prepared more earlier, but now when I go to the sets many things that I had discussed with the team earlier changes. It’s more organic.

The women characters in your movies, be it Cocktail (2012) or Finding Fanny, are flawed and even broken.

The complexities of a woman character is what lures me to tell their stories. There is so much more to play with while depicting a female character. They can always go against the grain. I find it interesting because of the complexities or incredibleness of a woman.

Angira Dhar in Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo.

Your next movie Murder Mubarak is also supposed to be woman-centric. Are you particular about certain elements while building the world of your female protagonists?

The only thing that I keep in mind is not to treat them differently because of their gender. I don’t want to be preachy or point out what’s right. It is important to put out these stories with their complexities. After that, it is up to the audience how they wish to receive it.

Many criticised the ending of Cocktail when the male protagonist chose the woman who is traditionally seen as good.

It was not my story. Frankly, at the end of the day, you can do a love triangle in only so many ways. Had the hero gone with the more modern girl, people would have criticised that too.

What’s next?

I want to produce a beautiful coming-of-age film that my associate director Vikram Davar has written and it is set in Siachen.