Have to respect the audience’s intelligence, says filmmaker Hansal Mehta
Always one to make socially relevant stories, filmmaker Hansal Mehta has found popularity and universal acceptance on OTT with the massive success of Scoop and Scam 1992.
After the success of Scam 1992 (2020), filmmaker Hansal Mehta is riding high, yet again, for his crime drama series, Scoop, on .
A National Award-winning filmmaker, Mehta started his career with chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s cookery show Khana Khazana (1993) on Zee TV. But he had to bide his time for the right opportunity to tell his kind of socially-relevant stories.
“My hustle is similar to that of Jigna Vora or Jagruti Pathak, the protagonist (of Scoop)... It’s the same kind of hustle that Karishma Tanna has faced; or for that matter Harman Baweja has faced. Most of us have been through this phase,” he says. Mehta refers to the long wait for a filmmaker like him in an industry struck with glamorous star-led films.
Hansal Mehta with actor Karishma Tanna in the sets of Scoop | Source: Netflix
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True-life incidents become intriguing dramas under his direction, with fine detailing and credible characters. “I focus on the interplay of characters over a plot’s development. What are my central characters doing? How are they responding to a situation? When characters interact with each other in a believable manner, the audience finds something to relate with,” Mehta tells YS Life.
A computer engineer, Mehta returned to India from Fiji to pursue filmmaking. Besides TV shows, he directed films like Dil Mein Mat Le Yaar!! (2003) and Woodstock Villa (2008) in the early phase of his career. The first has a cult following for its humour about the struggle of a migrant’s life in Mumbai, while the second is lost in oblivion.
After a sabbatical, Mehta returned to make Shahid (2013), a poignant film drawn about a fair fighting lawyer. It won him the National Film Award for Best Direction, and also won awards across film festivals and got a theatrical release. Mehta followed up with human dramas beyond commercial interest like City Lights (2014), a poor migrant’s struggle story; Aligarh (2016) poignant drama adapted from a real incident about a gay professor’s plight; and Simran (2017). But it is on OTT that he has truly found his scope and scale as a filmmaker who has made a smooth transition to the binge-worthy nature of long format storytelling.
It is on OTT that Hansal Mehta has truly found his scope and scale as a filmmaker | Source: Facebook
“Some stories are difficult to fit into the film format. For instance, Harshad Mehta’s story would be difficult to make as a film. When I read Jigna Vora’s book, I thought that the world around her prison days, everything that happened to bring her to that point, makes for an interesting world. Some stories work better in the longer format,” he explains.
Work on Scoop began before the COVID-19 pandemic. Mehta credits the finesse and accuracy of the show to the writing team. With Mrunmayee Lagoo as co-creator, the writers room featured Mirat Trivedi, Anu Singh Chaudhary, and Karan Vyas. Deepu Sebastian-led research while Ankur Pathak worked on creating a true to life newsroom.
The painstaking effort is evident as is the human nature of each character, a commonality with his earlier series, Scam 1992. “Only when the characters interact in a manner that people can understand, does a story work. While making Scam (1992) we were dealing with complex terms-stock market, share trading, insider trading-and yet, people could relate to what they saw in Harshad Mehta,” he says.
Writing has taken centre stage in the OTT series business, not so much in film. Even as films face a crisis with movie theatres running empty and flops piling up, Mehta has a straightforward take on the current state of Indian cinema.
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta | Image: Facebook
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“I will avoid making a generalised sweeping statement. But I will say that we need to respect the intelligence of the audience. We have to stop assuming that the audience won’t get it or that they expect less. Be it you or me, or anyone else, when we watch Jagruti Pathak’s media trail, we know what is going on. Also, some stories do well globally. But if you look at my work, it is very rooted in Indian reality,” he says, introspectively.
Perhaps that’s why his approach is succeeding now. Be it his films post 2013, or his series, a relevant social comment is prominently visible. In his latest, he has placed the spotlight on the non-stop, hungry news cycle and the media’s tendency to feed this cycle at all costs, including ethical boundaries.
“While making Scoop, we kept the facts in place, but we were always mindful that we are making a drama. It has to entertain. As for the media’s stand on this case or their behaviour, I want to leave it to the viewer to make up his/her mind,” Mehta concludes.
Up next is a film with Kareena Kapoor Khan and a follow up season to Scam 1992. Mehta promises to keep his stories rooted and his characters humane.
Edited by Megha Reddy