Devashish Makhija says Netflix needed a lot of convincing for Gandhari: ‘Taapsee Pannu and Kanika Dhillon fought for me’

Before he heads on a sabbatical to recover from his injury, Devashish talks to SCREEN about the pressures and pleasures of breaking through the mainstream and being emboldened by Kanika Dhillon and Taapsee Pannu.

What was your state of mind before Gandhari came to you?

I’ve never directed a film written by someone else. Definitely not a mainstream film, and most definitely not an OTT original. But Joram pretty much destroyed me. I produced it; although Zee funded it, it was a bit of a financial shipwreck. There’s a lot of pressure on me still to pay off debts in the market. And there was also pressure to look for work that would help me pay off debts. I’m in legal wrangles. Independent filmmakers like me don’t save money like that.

I was also getting tired of working for three-four years on a film. I was hunting for that one person out there who’d see merit in the kind of work I do. My films make a mark, but they don’t really make the money back. Then the fight to set up the next film, it almost feels like the beginning of every film takes me back 10 years. It’s like I’ve not progressed at all. So honestly, I got a little — I still am — tired of that independent film journey. Maybe another three-four years later, when I feel empowered, I’ll go back to it. But I’m rock bottom on my independent film stamina right now. Full respect and credit to those who can continue to do that. Although in Mumbai, you won’t find them. All those guys who made that one great independent film, they walk away from that fight. It takes a big chunk of your life.

When I came to Mumbai, I counted how many films (Ritwik) Ghatak and (Satyajit) Ray had made — 13 and 39, respectively. I thought not 39, but I’d make 13. Twenty years later, I’m sitting on four. I can’t sustain this. Not for mathematical reasons, but I want to be on the field. I want to be calling action and cut. I want to be talking to actors, creating moments, and fleshing out characters. I don’t want to be just writing synopsis after synopsis, making pitch deck after pitch deck. My folders in my laptop are full of thousands of pitch desks. I didn’t come to Mumbai to be an ace pitch decker. I wanted to be a filmmaker. So let’s see what directing for higher things feels like. Because everyone I respect and admire, from Hansal (Mehta) to Anurag (Kashyap), have also done that.

How did Gandhari come to you? Did it fall into your lap or you went seeking for it?

I started sending the vibes out. But a lot of people I did meetings with, I could sense they were a bit wary of the guy who made Joram. They’re like, ‘Love Joram, don’t want to put money on a film like that.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m coming to you with 16 scripts, and not all of them are like that. I have comedies. In my nine short films, I have made comedies. And I’ve made quirky stuff that doesn’t qualify as dark, depressing or political. But it wasn’t cutting any ice.

Then Kanika reached out. She’d been through some directors on this who had come in and left. So Netflix and Kanika had to align on the person who’d direct. I wasn’t sure if it was a film I wanted to direct because I’d seen her earlier films. But the draft I finally shot is 90% rewritten from the one I’d initially read. I saw potential of bringing myself into it. So I asked her, ‘How much are you going to allow?’ She said, ‘I need the director to lead it.’ So I thought if I could bring some of my motifs in, without compromising on the mainstream accessibility, I’m more than keen.

Even Netflix needed some convincing. I don’t blame them because the kind of films I’ve made, it’s very hard to imagine I could deliver the kind of film Netflix seeks today. So it was a lot of back and forth. I had to make them see what was in my head. I’d never done image referencing in my life. I’m not an ad filmmaker. I actually look down upon that process, but I couldn’t escape it this time. When I did it and placed before them my vision, it sort of rocked their boat. That’s when things fell into place. So every step of the way, it’s been a process I’ve never undertaken before. It’s been a first for me.

Since Netflix was on board, did that allow the independent filmmaker in you to not bother with the production, and focus only on the filmmaking?

No, not really. There were a lot of things that were going against the film. There were a lot of films at Netflix that were getting shelved. They were under a lot of pressure. I think their slate of originals is down to six to eight a year from a couple of dozens. The budgets were really tight and I had to shoot in a record number of days. Given all that, I’m not patting myself on the back, but it seemed like only I could do it. Because I’ve pulled off films in Rs 1 crore.

I wanted 75-80 days to shoot, I was given 45. Sometimes, I was pulling five to seven pages a day, which is the television level of speed. So I didn’t feel like I was making a mainstream film. I was making an independent film, just at a slightly larger scale. I had more people in my crew. If I had 35 in Ajji, I had 300 here. So there were more people wandering about my set, but the same challenges, the same speed, the same screaming and getting things done in record time, the same hitting the ground running at 5 am. I didn’t have the luxury of an extra hour. So I’m still waiting for that film where I don’t get out of the chair and the shots will get taken. This wasn’t that film.

In your past films, you never knew where they’d land up when you began filming. Did the fact that Gandhari already had a home liberate you from that uncertainty?

Yes. Even with Joram, though it was funded by Zee, they just put it on YouTube because nobody wanted to buy it. ZEE5 and Zee Studios are separate entities, so they’d have to buy it from Zee Studios. But ZEE5 turned it down. Prime took it after it was on YouTube, and I think they took it for free. And the minute Prime took it, it started trending in the top 5. There was very little faith in that film. It went on to win acclaim, but it didn’t make money.

I have to admit that it’s a relief that the day I entered (Gandhari), I was told it comes on Netflix by the end of 2025 or start of 2026. So I just have to think about making it? I’ve never felt that before! Yet, I really like my films finding festival audiences. All my films eventually come on streaming, but you’re only interacting with typed texts. You’re not interacting with people live. That, for me, is a big high. Once it’s ready, I’m going to have that conversation with Netflix — can we do just one festival, one live audience? Not many people know what it feels like because they haven’t experienced it.

Gandhari is your first woman-led film after Ajji. You did a couple of films with Manoj Bajpayee after that. How did it feel to return to that space after eight years?

No one’s making women-led films anymore. Even an Alia (Bhatt) has to step in and produce it herself for it to get made. So for Taapsee to headline a film and getting it made as a Netflix original is a bit of a miracle. I don’t see any other female star in Mumbai pulling that off.

I think the bigger miracle would be to get it out in theatres?

Like Jigra. My humble opinion is that if it came straight to streaming, it could have a whole different kind of reception. Theatre is brutal. And that slightly patriarchal mindset of watching a larger-than-life man being a saviour hasn’t left us. Kanika and Taapsee have now done a lot of — very loosely terming it — ‘feminist’ kind of stories. So it’s a very strong female character who doesn’t have men saving her, she’s actually saving the men, in this film. So I don’t know how that would go down with a theatre audience. I think it’s a good bet that it’s coming straight to streaming.

Did you have to keep a check on your ingrained patriarchy while making this film?

Ya, I had to. I think every man does. No matter how much sensitive or feminist a man, you have to. There were a couple of times in some scenes where Taapsee and I had some difficult conversations. Just before a shot, she said, “This is feeling like I’m being given this by a man, and I’m not seizing it as a woman.” I said, “You’re right. Let’s take five minutes.” And we’d call the writer, reorient that scene, reorient that dialogue. Because Taapsee’s got a very sharp radar for the woman being in the driving seat. So yeah, I had missteps a couple of times, but I went into this film wanting to check myself. This was a film written by a woman and headlined by a woman. So I was looking for hopefully taking one step up on the ladder to understanding what really is that feminist lens. Because as a man, till my dying day, I won’t fully nail that.
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Ishwak Singh is a great actor. Without taking anything away from him, is it still challenging to cast a supporting male lead at the same commercial level as the leading female actor?

I’ll have to filter myself here. I can just say I gave 35 narrations! And finally, we landed with Ishwak. He was one of my first choices, but of course, everyone wanted bigger names. It is that industry. That would be the case for all female-led films, whether it’s Deepika (Padukone) or Alia in the lead. The men won’t play second fiddle.

Taapsee is not a producer on Gandhari, but through her production house Outsider Films, she gives those not from the industry a chance. Do you think we’ve reached a point when someone had to do that consciously?

Ya, I don’t think we do it enough. She particularly is very vocal, and is fighting the good fight, constantly calling out nepotism. We had so many of those conversations on set. The way Taapsee does it, if 50 more do it, even then it wouldn’t be enough. She’s wearing the outsider thing on her sleeve and proving a point. But I don’t know if there are enough outsiders. More than half of the biggest stars — Ranbir, Alia — they’re good actors, but they’re all insiders. So I’m very glad Taapsee keeps talking about it. It’s one of her big grouses. And I’m a big champion of that.

If she was the sole producer on Gandhari, would she have chosen you as the director?

I wouldn’t know, but I do know that in the past four-five years, her production house had reached out to me. I did send a couple of scripts, but we never found the sweet spot. We have been trying to do something, and somewhere this became that moment. She and Kanika fought for me. Because I’m not on the list of your 40 go-tos for this kind of a film. It needed to be pacy, accessible, and thrilling. I needed to not compromise there because I knew these women fought for me. I know what went down in there.

Also Read: ‘Yash Raj Films just wiped out three years of my life,’ says Devashish Makhija