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Khakee: The Bengal Chapter showrunner Neeraj Pandey lauds ‘senior actors’ Prosenjit and Jeet for being very grounded: ‘That understanding is very important’
In a recent conversation with SCREEN, Neeraj Pandey talked about Khakee: The Bengal Chapter, his experience writing it, and his deep-rooted fascination with the thriller genre.
Neeraj Pandey on his latest production Khakee: The Bengal Chapter.
Filmmaker Neeraj Pandey’s Khakee: The Bihar Chapter made waves in the OTT space in 2022. Now, he expands the Khakee universe with The Bengal Chapter, taking the action to a grander scale and pushing boundaries like never before. What sets this installment apart is not just its high-octane action but also the coming together of two Bengali superstars—Prosenjit Chatterjee and Jeet Madnani—for the first time. In a recent conversation with SCREEN, Neeraj talked about the show, his experience writing it, and his deep-rooted fascination with the thriller genre.
During the conversation, Neeraj lauded the ‘senior actors’ on the show for being quite humble. He shared, “Both Debatma Mandal and Tushar Kanti Ray (directors) were newcomers so we knew that the onus would fall on the senior actors to handhold them through the journey and encourage them to be open and frank. That’s what they did and more, the result is something we all can see. For a team to come together in the manner that we did, it would not have been possible if the senior actors weren’t grounded. That understanding for an actor like Jeet that he is making his Hindi OTT debut is very important, it helps everyone. It helps in creating an atmosphere where there is a free exchange of ideas and a collaborative effort.”
Jeet chipped in, “As actors who have spent some time in the profession, you also get a sense of how important a director is, and if the director is also the writer, it makes all the more difference. That time you have to surrender yourself to them. This is my debut in the OTT space and in Hindi. So for a debutant, it’s all the more easy because we go with a clean slate. This is what the approach was. Casting was a masterstroke, but choosing Bengali directors was also a great idea.”
Neeraj Pandey also spoke about what draws him to the thriller genre. He said, “As a storyteller, I consider myself pretty genre-agnostic. I made a sports film, and a heist film, so anything that excites me as a story I am game for it. There is no fixed format or way to tell a story. Usually, the script tells you how to go about it. More often than not, you learn on the way, and get better prepared. You learn along the way and you can only hope to get better at what you are doing.”
Talking about the challenges to make a thriller stand out today, Neeraj shared, “You don’t have to think about the genre. I am not thinking thriller, but what is the story I am going to tell my audience. In Khakee also, we start with a story; and that’s how we take the punt. If a story excites the majority in the room, chances are that it will amplify and the world will love it. But if there is a descent between us we are in trouble.”
Khakee: The Bengal Chapter releases on Netflix India on March 20.
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