‘Triptii Dimri is Vicky Kaushal in the making’: Bad Newz director Anand Tiwari

In this interview with indianexpress.com, Tiwari talks about heling the romantic comedy supposedly inspired by true events exploring the rare medical case of heteropaternal superfecundation, opens up about the “moral compass” of the film’s theme and Vicky’s viral “Tauba Tauba” among other things.

“I am very excited because we’ve had a lot of mazaa (fun) making the film. Karan (Johar) sir and Apoorva (Mehta) allowed us to have that mazaa unhinged, unrestricted and now we can’t wait for the audiences to have that experience as well” declares Tiwari, the filmmaker who has directed films like Vicky Kaushal’s Love per Square Foot on Netflix and Madhuri Dixit’s Majaa Ma on Amazon Prime Video.

 

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Jumping directly to what went into making Vicky dance to “Tauba Tauba” the much talked about dance number that’s gone viral on the internet, Anand says, “The fact that “Tauba Tauba” also gave us a boost because it was a purely Punjabi number. Vicky is known for doing his reels in Punjabi, but generally when you have Hindi films using Punjabi artistes, there’s always a verse or two which are probably in Punjabi and the rest of the song is in Hindi. Here, on the other hand, we were dealing with Karan Aujla who is an authentic Punjabi singer and we didn’t want to colour it because this was also his first collaboration in Hindi films, or any films. So, we took the song exactly how he envisioned it and credit to Bosco (Martis, choreographer) and credit to Vicky’s long legs (chuckles). In these chaotic times when there is so much happening around us “Tauba Tauba” going beyond itself is ridiculous, we never expected it.”

The concept highlighted in Bad Newz is a rare medical case of heteropaternal superfecundation where a woman gets pregnant by two different men at the same time. While the film is creating quite a buzz on social media, there are some content creators who have been questioning the concept stating that it promotes having multiple partners.

Opening up on the film’s subject, Tiwari says, “Somen Mishra, the head of creatives at Dharma and Dharmatics, found an article and he got Ishita (Moitra) to write a draft on it and we took that draft and did our own. Tarun (Dudeja) having been the writer on it. So, between Ishita and Tarun’s draft, we had a lot of fun telling a story of something that is very unique; so unique that most people can’t even say heteropaternal superfecundation. We did our own little research to understand if something like this can really happen.”

Commenting on the film’s moral compass, he says, “About the moral compass of the film is best judged when you see the film. Because when you see the film you’ll realise how we have handled it and that would be a fair assessment of how well we dealt with it. We are making this film for a family audience, we have gotten a U/A certificate from the CBFC, so the censor has seen it and fully approved of this film. If there was anything on a morally dicey wicket, they would have easily called it out. The CBFC has not suggested any cuts. The content is absolutely all there, the way the censor saw it is the way the audience will also see it.”

 

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Triptii has become quite a sensation and her “Bhabhi 2” (after Animal) and “National Crush” tags came handy for Bad Newz. On “Bhabhi 2” hyping the film’s promotions, Tiwari chuckles and says, “Why would we let it go? However, our character was drawn up much Animal. We have not changed our character or the film based on Triptii’s character in Animal. There could be pre-post Animal in public perception, that is not the perception of the makers. Makers backed Triptii Dimri as a patta (card) that we are very sure of, which you’ll of course now see in Bad Newz.”

Tiwari then revealed that Karan Johar recommended Triptii for Bad Newz after watching her in Bulbbul and Qala. He says, “Karan sir recommended Triptii to me while she was still being considered for Animal, she was not a part of the film yet, so we went with Triptii for her skills, we saw Bulbbul and then Qala and we absolutely loved her. And then when I saw her on set, that girl is a talent that will last… Woh lambi race ki ghodi hai. Triptii Dimri is a Vicky Kaushal in the making. She is again somebody who comes from nowhere, she comes from a very rooted background, you will be more than pleasantly surprised with the performance in the film.”