Mission Raniganj writer alleges subsidy manipulation to shoot West Bengal-based film in England

In a conversation with Moviefied, Vipul K Rawal, the writer of the film, revealed the reason behind the flop: “The story was decent, not that bad at all. The making was also very good, but I don’t know, some projects are doomed from day one, and this was one of those projects.”

He also questioned the logic behind shooting a film set in West Bengal in London: “Mujhe toh samjh nahi aaya ki ye West Bengal ki film thi, isko England mein shoot kiya tha producers ne. Kya zaroorat hai? Just because kuch subsidy mil rahi hai, toh aap kuch jhool jhal karke, 1 ka 4 dekhake subsidy loge. Abhi England waalon ne duniya par raaj kiya hai, woh itne bewakoof thodi hai, samjh mein nahi aajayega unko ki jhol jhapata chal raha hai iss mein. Parliament mein question raise ho gaya, sabki subsidy bandh karwadi, jo genuine log thay unki bhi bandh hogayi. Kya shauq tha Bengal ki film ko London lejana ka? Mujhe toh logic hi samjh mein nahi aaya (I didn’t understand why a West Bengal film was shot in England. What was the need? Just because you get some subsidy, you try to manipulate things. The British aren’t fools, they would figure out the trick. It got even raised in the Parliament, and subsidies were cut for everyone, including those who genuinely deserved them. What was the point of taking a Bengali film to London? It just didn’t make sense to me).”

Batti Gul Meter Chalu failed because the director was a ‘duffer’

Vipul K Rawal cited a similar reason for the failure of another film he co-wrote, Batti Gul Meter Chalu, which starred Shahid Kapoor: “See, the director matters a lot. I don’t know what our director (Shree Narayan Singh) was thinking, why did he move a story set in Bombay to Uttarakhand? Because there was a subsidy. He had tea with the DM, the CM approved the subsidy. There should be a reason. You can’t just change the setting of a story like that.”

Vipul K Rawal, who co-wrote Batti Gul Meter Chalu, revealed that the director decided to shift the film’s setting from Mumbai to Uttarakhand because he was receiving a subsidy.

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He went on to admit that he realized the film was doomed right after the first narration with the director and Shahid Kapoor. “So in the first meeting at Shahid’s house, the director brought in two new writers (Siddharth-Garima). I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I had a feeling my film was doomed. I left it and was like, you make whatever you want.” He added: “This is what happens when a director tries to become a writer. The whole story got messed up, the script was ruined. Duffer, idiot. I don’t blame Shahid at all; it was entirely the director’s decision to change the story and move it to Uttarakhand.”

Vipul K Rawal recently co-wrote the Emraan Hashmi web series Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web, which has done very well on the streaming platform Netflix.