The Night Manager creator Sandeep Modi on ‘dark times’ before show went on floors: ‘Directors told me it’s recipe for disaster, get out’ 

The Disney+ Hotstar show released to acclaim last week, has reinstated faith for Sandeep, who chronicles the ambitious journey the show took to finally reach the audience– and is yet not ever as the remainder episodes will drop later on the streaming platform.

In an interview with indianexpress.com, Sandeep opens up about the process of adapting the show, the decision to splice it into two parts, why Anil Kapoor and Tillotma Shome are the show’s Gabbar and Thakur and how he made the series when everyone told him to leave it while he could.

Edited excerpts:

 

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How was the weekend like?

I always thought when I moved to OTT from the world of theatrical, Fridays would be easier without the numbers, the pressure. But it’s the same! Whether it’s Arya or The Night Manager, when the show hits by 8AM, you are tempted to look at your phone, check reviews. You read 10 good reviews, but those two bad reviews will also mess with you. So it started with that, and then the euphoria started to kick in and it swept me away. So yes, the weekend was nice.

What was the hardest part of adapting the series?

This was the toughest adaptation. As a showrunner, I had earlier adapted Aarya with Ram (Madhvani), but in this one, it was a very popular show. When I had signed up for the show, someone actually contextualized it and said, ‘Do you know what you are up to? You are in a way remaking Sholay!’ It is as big as that, because the fandom of the show is huge, the actors are large, a widely watched series. So, you are basically putting yourself up for comparison… The toughest part was what is the point of view we will apply to it.

Shridhar and I really think that the more personal a story becomes, the deeper and wider it gets. While in the original show, Jonathan Pine was about ‘do it for the country’ and may be for Sophie, you are not sure what is more important. But here, we thought here’s a man who blames himself more than anyone else for the death of the little girl. So, it became a personal story of redemption rather than revenge. Once we arrived at that, we felt this is a worthy adaptation, because you have taken the plot, but the motivations of characters are different. We also examined the original plot with today’s eyes.

Why did you think of the Rohingya crisis to set your story? What made you choose Bangladesh?

Shridhar and I were very sure at the start that because it is a conflict zone, the story is an Asian story, let’s point our fingers at something that’s huge but has probably been under the radar in the Indian context. And Bangladesh felt like an unlikely place to start with. In the UK version of the story, it was sent during the Arab spring and over the last 7-8 years when we were looking at our narrative, we didn’t have a similar moment except the Rohingya crisis which was a huge humanitarian crisis, which went under the radar in India. We thought instead of just looking at Pakistan, Afghanistan, China side, we should look at the other side, other neighbours and borders. We have a shared history with Bangladesh. It was all adding up. We wanted this to be a saga, over all the dates and the events, when the protests happened, the Rohingya crisis and show it was intertwined with arms deals. I don’t want to give out too much of episode 5-7, but it’s done beautifully by Shridhar.

Can you talk about the decision to split the show into two?

This is something beyond my control. The network decided to go with this release plan, which as per their data works best for everyone. This is something I will refrain from commenting. I am equally interested that the audience receives the next few episodes as early as they can and enjoy the story in totality.

 

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The way Anil Kapoor has played Shelly, he seems to have truly enjoyed the part.

I always thought he has that swag, and he will be able to pull it off but the more I spoke to him he told me, ‘Sandeep I don’t know why you see that in me, I am a happy go lucky guy, I am always laughing.’ Somewhere, I borrowed that and said, ‘Sir let’s use that for our character.’ We never wanted to replicate what another actor had done. The fact that you are Anil Kapoor and people love you, we should use it, make it a complex character where his actions have been bad, but his personality is so charming. He is nice to kids, Shaan, the girl, till one day it will all come unhinged. When the beast inside comes out. He is played it so well.

Can you talk to us about Tillotama Shome’s character? She has been the surprise package of the series.

I am so heartened when I see her getting praised, because from day one I was clear I just wanted Tillotama for the character. Around that time, her film Sir’s trailer had come out and I had told Anil sir that I want her for the part. He asked me what’s on my mind and I told him, ‘Imagine a Tillotama Shome kind of actor playing this character, played by Olivia Colman in the original, who is going to bring you down.’ She is less than five feet, and you are this tall guy with a booming voice. This is my David vs Goliath. If this is Sholay as people keep telling me, then you are Gabbar and she is Thakur. Jai and Veeru rolled into one is Shaan.

Both Aditya and Anil said this was a great casting choice. My thematic brief to everyone on the show was that it is the clash of two worlds, the have and the have nots, who meet at a hotel. I wanted someone who can bring in that sense of realism, which she brought. We wanted that character to have a dry sense of humor, which makes it so much fun… A lot of work with Tillotama on this show has been done by my co-director Priyanka Ghosh. They spent a lot of time on sharpening the character, making it better. Kudos to them and the writer, they have written some great lines for her. The best lines are reserved for her and Saswata. Anil Kapoor keeps saying, ‘Yaar I should play both these parts, a double role, give Shelly to someone else!’

Was there a time when you were restless, when the show was not taking off? There was a time Hrithik Roshan was attached, then a lot of back and forth was happening. It took a while before the show was finally mounted. Was that phase tough?

It was very tough. I had decided I want to enjoy this ride. When I signed the show, I thought to do it well, I should not be two-timing with a doubt in my head at all. I was an ad filmmaker, I stopped doing ad. I was working on a couple of feature films, I stopped that. I just wanted to dedicate my time and energy on this show. I have been tested a lot. There were things with casting which were going haywire, the pandemic made us feel that the plugs would be pulled off from the show, there was a time when the show struggled with all the date issues and I thought it will never complete, that it would be an abandoned project.

It was a tough time personally. I am very proud that I pulled through, because genuinely it was a dark time. I had to find all my mental strength. You left Aarya, and it’s making two more seasons, but here you are, still working on this. You left so many films, the peers you are working with have moved on to their third and fourth projects and here you are, still trying to take this through.

Besides the casting, there were many directors who had passed this on. They had told me it’s improbable to make, because we were making an OTT show with mainstream actors which is (adaptation of) a classic. They would find a nice corner in a party and tell me, ‘This is a recipe for disaster, get out while you can.’ I don’t know why at that point I had the courage to… There was something about the story which told me this is worth the ride. This experience will make me trust the process a lot more. The love people have given me for the show so far will power me for the next five years.