Nitesh Tiwari opens up about his writing style, says he prefers writing stories that show ‘profound things in a light-hearted manner’

The filmmaker said he wrote Tumse Na Ho Payega and also wanted to direct it himself but gave up the idea as it occupies the same space as Chhichhore. Nitesh shared that the script of the film, starring Ishwak Singh and Gaurav Pandey, was with him for over three years but he couldn’t direct it because he wanted to “do something different”.

“The book came to me through Ashwini (wife and filmmaker Ashwini Iyer Tiwary). She read the book and gave it to me, she said that this book had the potential to become a very good script. I and Nikhil (Mehrotra) wrote it and it shaped up into something very interesting. But by that time I had just finished Chhichhore and I wanted to do something different for myself. I was so much in love with Tumse Na Ho Payega that I did not want to let it go. So, I was looking for like-minded people doing it. I had great working experience with Sid (Siddharth Roy Kapur) and Ronnie (Screwvala), they came together along with the Disney Plus Hotstar team and then I was looking for somebody who could do justice to what was there on the paper. I personally felt that the reason I chose to write this one was because of my gut feeling,” the filmmaker shared.

On making films that saying something profound in a light-hearted manner

Nitesh then opened up about why he choses youth-centric stories. Describing his writing style, Nitesh says, “I write something that is relatable, something which is inspiring and something that haste- khelte aap koi badi baat keh jaaye (says something profound in a light-hearted manner). I always believe in telling those kinds of stories and this is no different. Then I was looking for someone whose talent I believe in to direct the film, someone who understands the vision of the writers. It is very important for me that the director understands and believes in the vision of the writers and Abhishek (Sinha) was the right candidate.”

 

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Collaborating with his wife, filmmaker Ashwini Iyer and other directors

This is not the first time that Nitesh’s script has been directed by a filmmaker other than him; his wife and director Ashwini Iyer has collaborated with him on Bareilly Ki Barfi. Nitesh shares that he looks out for filmmakers who “understand the vision of the writer” to direct his stories.

He shares, “I am not new to someone else directing the stuff written by me, Ashwini has done that many times. My fundamentals are very simple, it is almost like handing your baby to somebody else to nurture. So, you need to have belief in that person. If I believe in someone then I’ll completely go out of my way. I am there only for hygiene checks, I am not someone who’s going to be sitting on somebody’s head and saying how exactly it should be done. Ashwini has done it very beautifully, Abhishek has done it very beautifully in Tumse Na Ho Payega. It feels very rewarding when you trust somebody and that somebody kind of makes you believe that they were worth trusting your baby with and there’s no better feeling than that.”

 

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Addressing Bawaal failure

Nitesh’s last release, the Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Dhawan-starrer Bawaal, was criticised heavily for conflating the Holocaust with the film’s narrative. The film’s lead characters travel to World War 2 sites and visit a gas chamber in Auschwitz. They are shown inside a gas chamber in a dream-like sequence.

Addressing the failure of Bawaal, Nitesh says, “See, it is ultimately up to you how to take the response, I always try to look at the positives and learn from the negatives which come your way. Thankfully, at least for me, the positives have been far more overwhelming than the negatives which have come my way. So, I choose to learn from what could have been but I am still very happy with all the positives that have come. And, it’s a journey, you know, as a creative person you have to understand that you cannot please everyone, there is no way… we are not gods. We’ll have our share of disagreements from a section of people who might not like what you create but that’s the journey and that’s the beauty of the journey. If everything that we create gets universally loved then we’ll start living in illusion. So, it is always good to have that check at a regular interval which comes your way, and I take it as a blessing is what I can say.”