Satyaprem Ki Katha writer Karan Sharma on how Kartik Aaryan, Kiara Advani came on board, ‘male saviour’ criticism and how it all started ‘with a snore’

Though the film received mostly positive reviews, especially for its performances, story and direction, Satyaprem Ki Katha was also criticised by a section, which felt it handled its subject with a male saviour complex. Karan, who had previously written the 2019 drama Anandi Gopal directed by Sameer, is aware of the conversation but says his idea with the romantic drama was to write a film about a “feminist man” and not to create character that “mansplains” the victim.

In an interview with indianexpress.com, Karan opens up about writing Satyaprem Ki Katha taking a cue from his father’s snoring, how they used the commercial narrative to address an important topic and why some of the “woke” criticism around the film can make for an interesting conversation, but not necessarily a valid one.

Edited excerpts:

How does the success feel like?

It is still sinking in, but what is validating is the conversation it has started. I am loving the feedback that’s coming our way. There were different ways the story could have been told, obviously we chose a certain way– to tell a story like this in a commercial format, which has been the most satisfying. We wanted to make a film that’s family viewing friendly–which is why we didn’t even show the incident–a movie that isn’t uncomfortable to watch and yet makes its point very clear. The first half was designed to be this quintessential romantic comedy with all the trappings of mainstream commercial cinema and then it flips in the second half and slowly reveals what it is about.

What was the starting point of the story?

It was my parents! I have always been amused by the fact that how my mom sleeps so peacefully next to my dad, who has a snoring issue (laughs). I can’t sleep next to my dad, so I would always ask her, ‘How do you not get disturbed?!’ and she would tell me, ‘I don’t even hear it!’ For me it showed compatibility, romance and is so endearing. I thought it is an interesting story to tell, but obviously you can’t make it only about that. So I started penning down my thoughts, that why does this girl not want to sleep next to this boy and from there it took me to different areas, and I figured out who these two characters were. But the genesis was snoring. The last shot of the film is about both of them sleeping comfortably next to each other. We treated it as a red herring, ‘Is it snoring? Why doesn’t she want to sleep next to him? Is it something else?’ But the germ of the idea began there– the snoring.

When did you start writing it?

I completed the first draft in 2018 and the next year we started approaching people. But by the time we could get it all together, the pandemic hit us. We were taking to actors before that, and obviously Kartik was on our minds to play the lead but he had other commitments, was looking at things in a certain different zone but it so happened that when he got Covid, he was isolated and was on a reading and hearing spree. That’s when the narration happened on Zoom.

How did Kiara come on board?

In 2019, we had reached out to her. She had liked the script but back then the male lead was not on board and then the pandemic hit and everyone kind of lost touch. Then later when we reopened the conversation, Kartik was the first person we reached out to. Once he was on board, we reached out to Kiara again that there is a male lead locked.

What has been the feedback like? Some reviews did mention the film having a male saviour complex.

I’ve read a few reviews which talked about the male saviour complex, but for me it was the story of a feminist man. I believe till the men don’t change or become like Sattu; society won’t change. My idea was very clear that it is the story of a feminist man and I want to tell it from his point of view.

There is a thin line between male saviour and men as allies and a section did note that Sattu comes across as the saviour of Katha in some scenes. How do you look at that?

I am still processing it. We had a crew of 200-300 people and nobody ever thought of it as that. We had a strong female producer on set everyday, she didn’t think like that, Kiara didn’t think of that and I don’t think Supriya mam thought it that way. I was having a conversation with Shikha Talsania, who plays Sattu’s sister, and she also didn’t think that way. These are women with a lot of agencies themselves, but at no point they felt he is ‘saving’ her. One review mentioned that he was mansplaining. But he wasn’t.

He is fighting with his father and telling her that it is her call. It makes for an interesting conversation for the woke people to talk about mansplaining and stuff but when you are talking about a guy from Gujarat, who is basically thinking that I am a virgin, and I am saving myself for my wife… For him to become someone, who says he is ok with just even holding her hands, I don’t know how that becomes a male saviour complex. But fine, everyone looks at things differently.

In the end, I wished it wasn’t Sattu speaking on behalf of Katha–without even asking her once if she is ok for him to mention the incident publicly, an incident which was so traumatic. I wanted Katha to have that moment, not Sattu.

It is a valid point, but for the large part of the film, the girl is blaming herself. ‘May be my father was right, may be my drinking, smoking’ was (responsible). She is constantly blaming herself, trying to slit her wrist. She had to overcome that baggage first. The whole idea of telling the family comes from her (when she reveals what happened to her to Sattu’s family). She is the one who confesses, he doesn’t tell her to. That’s her agency, she feels a certain sense of relief. Then when the Kashmir portion happens and they try to get intimate again but she can’t, that’s when he feels that till the time she really doesn’t get the justice that she deserves, she won’t be able to overcome what she is going through. That’s the way I looked at it.

Which is why in the balcony scene she says, ‘I can’t believe that I didn’t fight for myself.’ In that moment she realises that she had the guts to slit her wrist, but not to sign the paper. Usually in all Hindi films, we have seen that the girl is the catalyst in the boy’s coming off age, here, in my head, somewhere this guy is the manic pixie. That was new for me. I did get a little perturbed initially when certain reviews mentioned this (male saviour) but the generic feedback that followed, majorly from women was different. Sattu is an ally, a companion, a partner, which women are wanting. We have also tried to change the depiction of what an ideal man or boy should be like.

Usually, a man is supposed to be the nurturer, the provider. But Sattu is actually not doing anything like that, his only thing is he loves the girl, and he will do everything to make her happy. One of the reviews mentioned that, ‘Oh can we stop saying that only if a girl smokes she is a modern woman.’ But that was not to show modernity, that was his way of telling her that, ‘You smoking is not a reason of what happened to you, so don’t beat yourself up for it.’ But all of this is fine, conversations and debates must happen.

Katha is a very interesting character…

Yes and let me tell you this, if she was not raped by her boyfriend, then she would have had a lot more agency and would have fought for herself on her own for a long time. But because it was her boyfriend, because she had to go through an abortion, she kept blaming herself for it. That comes from conditioning, and we see how her father reacts. When she came clean to the Sattu’s family and told him the fact that as long as he understands, nobody else matters to her, her fight was over. But he thought for her to truly overcome this, she has to fight the battle.

The conversation between Sattu and his mother is a beautiful scene, where she tells him that he is ok with it now, but can he be like this his entire life…

When I had narrated the film to Kartik, the scene wasn’t there. It was there in an earlier draft, but we had removed it due to length issues. But after the narration, I felt we needed to get that scene back. I am glad we did because so many have reacted to that scene so beautifully. In the film, the mother is constantly criticising him, doesn’t even know why a girl like Katha would want to marry him. When she sees he is being a supportive husband, that’s when she…. Supriya mam also is such a stunning actor, her transition was just phenomenal. I wanted this even in the writing, that the father, who is actually his best friend, towards the end is the one not understanding him while the mother, who never got him, has finally understood the boy that he is.