When Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney + Hotstar are all vying for you to be a part of their projects, you know you have struck filmmaking gold. Filmmaker Suparn Varma, who directed five episodes of “The Family Man 2”, besides doing the screenplay and dialogues, has been enjoying the enviable position for a while now. Varma had been roped in for the second season of “The Family Man” even before the release of Season 1 and one could say ‘serendipity’ is Varma’s middle name.
His upcoming release courtroom drama series “The Trial – Pyaar, Kaanoon, Dhokha” promises to be a gritty drama full of tension, suspense and a whirlwind of emotional complexities, which incorporates social themes in its narrative.
In this exclusive conversation, Varma spills beans on donning multiple hats, “Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai”, remaking films, experimenting as a creator, and much more…
You’ve donned multiple hats whether it’s of a director, screenwriter or producer, but success, fame and critical acclaim took their own sweet time to come knocking at your doorstep. What was it that kept you going?
Honestly, success is just a way for the door to be kept open, for you to do more and more work. My entire journey has literally been about a hand boy who gets to play, who gets to make films and tell stories, and that’s the only passion that’s driven me my entire life; that’s all I wanna do – tell stories. And I want to do it in any way possible, whether it’s being a director, writer or producer. I think it’s a journey because life teaches you everything along the way. The lessons are there for you to learn and I think success teaches you nothing. Failures on the other hand, teach you and make you the person that you are. You can choose to become who you want to be. Life is all about choices, right? It’s about the choices we make. So, I guess if you’re persistent, passionate and never give up, because you truly can’t give up, you have to be at it, and somewhere life gets boring or tired, and opens up the door for you, it’s your responsibility to take it in and keep it open. You have to work really hard because there are no free lunches or free passes in this world.
During the pandemic, there was a sudden rise in the OTT platforms, especially in India. For someone who is touted as the kingmaker of digital space, how do you think OTT has changed
the face of your career apart from bringing change in the entertainment industry as a whole?
I think I was one of the earliest filmmakers to take part in the streaming platform services and create content for them. I started with a show called “Yeh Ke Hua Bro” on Voot and then “Kaushiki” came out, which is also on Voot now. And then I wrote “Hasmukh” which was for Netflix and that was a great learning curve because storytelling was changing and in life, there are three things that we have to remember like a mantra – change, adapt, evolve. If you don’t do either of these things, you’ll eventually learn hard lessons through life. So, you just got to keep rolling with it and that fact is, I am lucky that I began my career with the heralding of the internet in India. When it comes to creating content, storytelling has been evolving and we’ve been exposed to the best of what the world has to offer. So, when we create shows or movies out here now, you need to make it for a world audience while keeping it grounded, because at the end of the day, your primary audience is in India. And the fact is that people across the world want to watch stories about India and Indians, not give it a western touch. So, maybe the big learning was that we localise and think global. The ‘think local and be global’ mantra applies to storytelling as well. You have the sheen and polish which is much more international, but the heart of the story and characters comes from India. I guess, what happened during COVID was that OTT leapfrogged from being very French to becoming mainstream. What would have happened within the next 10-12 years happened within 2 (years) and that changed the scope, mindset of the business and audiences overnight. For some, it’s been a process of taking time to adapt whereas for some, it’s been an opportunity they had been waiting their entire life, including me. And we jumped at the chance that life had provided us. We’re able to tell stories the way we want to.
There have been various courtroom dramas made in Bollywood, which range from being the commercial masala type to slow-burn courtroom dramas. Your recent successful project “Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai” belongs to the latter and also went on to become the highest opener for Zee5. Since it was based on true events, how challenging does it become to not cross that line of sensationalising the crime and presenting it very sensitively?
From day one, when it came to “Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai”, the basic idea was this that we needed to ensure the sanctity of the story was never sensationalised and a bigger point needed to be made, which was we are a country of faith, belief system and a spirituality that spans over 10,000 years and more, right? We’ve had some great gyaani gurus who’ve been a part of our lives and still are. In this ecosystem, when a couple of rotten apples spoil the faith of millions, then it is wrong and that story needed to be told; and also talk about the rights and plight of a child and do it in a manner which does not sensationalise. It had been a while that a courtroom drama had been made in our country but we have been used to a certain dramatic style for a long time, which served its purpose then, but now we wanted to make it real and procedural in a courtroom setting which is honest and true because the audiences have seen the way courtrooms operate, whether it’s on international shows or movies and within the country as well. So, we needed to go to the next level with it and for that we spent a lot of time, around nine months, researching the material we had, consulting different lawyers, spending time in sessions court and high court. We had a great team – Deepak, Apporv and Manoj, who were so committed, and we spent almost a year preparing for it. It was a labour of love and we knew that we were going to make it in the truest fashion and that I think reflected in our work and
intentions.
The audience these days is very much aware about the content they want to watch, especially with multiple digital platforms to choose from. With such little attention span and never-ending options to choose from, as a creator, how can you make sure you deliver quality
content and add value instead of just being a part of the race just for the sake of it?
Yes, there is an insane amount of content out there and every day, more and more content keeps coming in. My job is to be true to myself because see, you can either do quantity or quality. I like doing a lot of stories because I have a lot of stories to tell and a lot of stories interest me, and I’m blessed to be working with a lot of great collaborators and creators who are like-minded. It’s that ecosystem that enables me and us to be able to deliver the kind of quality and stories that we wish to. Also, honestly, when you maybe have too many overheads in life, then you’re doing work just for the sake of it. But today, there’s a chance to do such good work, which can become memorable and end up leaving a lasting legacy.
In times when everyone has something to say, people are so quick to judge something and are more interested in criticising something – especially when it comes to religious sentiments – rather than watching films with an open mind and appreciating the efforts behind it. What’s your opinion on that and how do you filter this noise around you?
Here’s the thing, when you try and make a thing with an agenda, then everybody has a point of view to make. And yeah, we live in an age – digital age – where everybody with a click of a button has an opinion to share. But instead of cribbing and crying about it, take it in your stride. Society keeps evolving continuously, it’s a churn. There is good, there is bad and when there is too much noise, then you turn it into white noise and you just focus on what you have to do, listen to what you need to listen to, you absorb what you need to absorb, and the rest just declutter your life. Focus on your work as simple as that. It literally just comes down to that because the same audience also appreciates your work and gives you a lot of love. So, at the end of the day, understand where they’re coming from and as long as you’ve got an open heart and an open mind, you’ll get to learn and understand a lot. So even I wouldn’t be so quick to judge and rather understand it first before deciding what to hear and what not to hear.
In one of your interviews, you had mentioned that you took the soul of the American series “The Good Wife” and adapted it into your latest release “The Trial: Pyaar, Kaanoon, Dhokha”. If we talk about adaptations or remakes in general, our industry has been facing major backlash from the audience for its lack of originality and on top of that, the decline in box office numbers are adding to the trouble. What is your take on the current situation of our film industry?
So, when it comes to remaking films, yes there has been a backlash but it was only because during COVID, a lot of films, especially from down South were dubbed in Hindi. So, the audience has already seen those films and doesn’t want to see them again, you know. And because unfortunately, filmmakers were also committed and in the process of making it, they finished it. But again, this is a part of the process. Everybody is learning to adapt, change, and evolve. Next bunch of films that come out as we speak currently, in the next year or so, they’ve already adapted to the new changing ecosystem. So, that will bring about the next wave and change of
Hindi cinema. Because I think whether it’s Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu or Kannada, they’ve adapted faster. We are just changing now, which is fine as long as we understand our audience. Cinema is a community experience and digital platforms are an individual experience and both will exist side by side, the way TV and cinema did. Everybody finds their own space under the sun. Our job as storytellers isn’t to worry about where it’s going to be streamed or distributed.
Our job is to make good stories and focus on that. Lastly, you have an interesting line-up of projects, ranging from “Rana Naidu Season 2” to “The Family Man Season 3” and “Sultan of Delhi”. While we often talk about the versatility of actors, not a lot has been spoken about the creative range of writers and/or directors. What’s your take on that? And according to you, is it important for directors to experiment with their craft?
For me, I love experimenting with my craft because I love all genres; I’m genre-agnostic. I want to do everything because we have one life. Why confine our minds and hearts to just one thing? Why seek safety when the truth is that there’s no such thing as safety? You can die while crossing the road. So, when there’s no guarantee of safety in our life, how can we seek safety in terms of profession? This is not a 9 to 5 job that we’ve decided to take. We literally start from scratch every time a release happens. We learn and unlearn on a daily basis. And the craft is ever evolving and that’s the best part about this medium; that’s the challenge and joy of it. I personally believe in experimenting with as much storytelling and genres as possible.
