Rahul V Chittella’s debut film Gulmohar won three National Film Awards, including Best Hindi Film and Best Dialogues. Rahul, who has worked with Mira Nair for over 14 years, has been producing, writing, and also directing short films.

Rahul says he stumbled into producing by chance when Mira Nair’s producer suddenly backed out. “I didn’t want to produce, but she said, ‘We have no option.’" So, he gave it a shot and ended up enjoying it. He was also all set to produce A Suitable Boy, but then Gulmohar was greenlit.

When Rahul set out to make this film, he knew he wanted it to be about family, as Hrishikesh Mukherjee's films had a huge influence on him. However, the idea of a house being packed up came to him when Mira Nair’s Delhi home of three decades was being sold.

His portrayal of Delhi in Gulmohar is so accurate that people often assume he is from Delhi and lives there. Rahul jokes, “Every time I meet someone in Bombay, they ask, ‘Oh! Aap kab aaye?’ And I’m like, ‘Arey, main idhar hi rehta hoon!’

In a chat after the National Film Awards, the director and co-writer of the film spoke about how Gulmohar came together.

Rahul says his approach to family and the warmth in his films is heavily influenced by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, whose films from Chupke Chupke to Guddi he has seen several times.

He shares, "That's where it comes from. I wanted to make a film about family and explore what that means. Mira’s house in Delhi became our home for 12 years. Every time I came from Bombay, I stayed there. My first short film was edited in that house. All our casting used to happen there. So, when the house was sold, it felt very emotional. I remember, one day while we were writing, we didn’t have the idea of a house being packed up. We were just fleshing out the characters. Then the movers came, and suddenly I got this idea of packing up the house as the backdrop. Weirdly, in the film, the packers you see are the same ones who packed up Mira’s house."

The production designer of Gulmohar is Mansi Dhruv Mehta, who also worked on Piku. Initially, the plan was to shoot the film on a set, similar to films like Roma and Parasite, where most of the action happens on a constructed set of home. Rahul recalls, "Piku’s house was a set built in a hotel in Bandra. When Mansi told me this, I was heartbroken. I thought it was a real Delhi house, but she said, no, it was a set. And that’s how I decided to hire her."

However, due to the pandemic and travel restrictions, building a set wasn’t feasible, and the search for the Gulmohar bungalow began.

In the film, dialogues are woven into the house itself, with stairs playing a symbolic role. Manoj Bajpayee’s character quotes his father, saying that a house with stairs is a sign of success, which made finding a double-storied house essential.

Rahul shares that they needed the house for three weeks and asked the family living there to move out with all their furniture - a tough ask.

Sharing how he got the bungalow, Rahul says, "I’ve always loved the culture of Delhi houses. Aise ghar toh Bombay mein hote hi nahi hain. When I approached the owner, he told me that when he was eight, Sharmila Tagore came to the house and took a photo with him and his family in the front yard. When he renovated the house, that photo got lost. He told me he wanted a photo with her in the same spot. That’s how I got the house - because of the owner’s love for Sharmila Tagore. I got it just three weeks before the shoot. Now, that man has told me he’s renamed the rooms of the house based on Gulmohar's characters."

He adds, "Bollywood is very powerful - we shouldn’t diss Bollywood."

The film also received a lot of praise for its aesthetics, with walls adorned with art, photographs, bookcases, and original paintings. Rahul, who was visiting an art gallery in Delhi before the interview, says, "My DOP Mansi and I are both very fond of art in real life. We had the privilege of exploring and had a lot of fun picking out each piece of art for every corner. I’m very fond of art. One of my friends created original paintings for the house in the film."

Talking about his collaboration with co-writer Arpita Mukherjee, Rahul says, "We have our similarities, and we have our differences, but we respect each other and value our friendship."

Rahul believes dialogue isn’t just about writing - it’s about how the actor delivers it. He says, "I love dialogues. Many times, when we write scripts and send them to colleagues, they say, ‘Arey! Silence hona chahiye, it’s too verbose, this and that.’ But I love dialogues because I have confidence in the actors I cast. The dialogues we wrote for Gulmohar became great not just because of the lines, but also because of how the actors spoke those lines. I had actors who were such good students of text. It’s quite a talky film, with a lot of dialogues, and then my direction came in - to keep it as colloquial and natural as possible. Aisa dialoguebaazi na lage. I enjoy dialogues because, ultimately, you’re trying to say something or question something."

Sharing an example, he says, “Manoj’s dialogue - ‘Do manzilon ka ghar to ban gaya, kamre bhi badh gaye, par iss ek ghar mein na jaane kab hum sabne apne-apne kamron mein khud ke ghar bana liye hain.’ It wasn’t something I consciously tried to write - it just came to me. I called Arpita and said, 'This is what our story is going to be about,’ because we were still trying to figure out the core of the story."

What does he think makes a dialogue click with the audience or the jury? Rahul says, "I think it’s the whole experience of the scene that gets communicated through dialogue. There was another scene where Manoj goes to meet his biological father at a dhaba, and the man says, ‘Aap de sakte hain kyunki aapko di gayi hai.’ That idea came from Arpita, and we both agreed we wanted to show gratitude there."

At a time when silences are often seen as more telling in films and dialoguebaazi is frowned upon, how does a director decide how much the characters will say and what will be left unsaid?

He explains, "It’s not about the length of the dialogue. If you look at Srif Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai, Manoj’s final monologue is about five pages long. But at the end of the day, it’s about whether that emotion gets communicated through the scene and the story, and whether it hits your heart. I think dialogue writing is like conducting an orchestra - you know when to start, when to slow down, and when to hit that note. In that way, it’s like music. You can’t make it mechanical. It only feels like dialoguebaazi when it’s obvious the line is written."

He says that’s where direction comes in - you direct in a way that doesn’t make it feel like dialoguebaazi. You’re seamlessly fooling the audience and suddenly grabbing them.

When does he know it’s a good dialogue? Giving example, he says, "One of my favourite lines of Sharmila ji in the film is, ‘Kabhi-kabhi zindagi ko apne panne khud likhne do.’ And then, ‘Yeh ghar humne int pattharon se nahi, dil se banaya tha...’ When I’m writing, I’m also visualizing. So, when a line doesn’t land, you have to keep working at it.”

Rahul says that when you're making a film, you're not going to work any less just because it's on OTT. "In fact, I sometimes feel that making a film for OTT is tougher because anybody can just pause and walk away. It’s much harder to engage and keep the grip. You can't undermine a film because it’s an OTT film - a film is a film."

Giving examples of films like Srif Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai, Qala, and Bulbbul, he says, "I feel OTT gives the kind of budget that retains quality - not just for the actors but for production quality and standards."

Rahul shares, "Sharmila ji took three days to read the script and then called me and said, 'Listen, at the end of the day, I’m Sharmila Tagore, and I come with this legacy of work, image, and audience perception. I don’t know if the audience will accept me as a queer lady character.' And I told her, 'Sharmila ji, love is love, just like in the film, and we should treat it like that. We shouldn’t sensationalize it. It’s a personal choice.' And she said, 'Okay, let’s have fun with it.'"

Rahul says that he knew Manoj Bajpayee for a very long time before he approached him for the role. He says, "In fact, there was a film that Mira and I were producing, and we were talking with Manoj. That’s how I met him. He had seen my short film Azad and said, 'Whenever you’re making your first film, I’m gonna do it.' And I thought - these stars, they keep saying it, but he won’t do it. But when I finished the script, Manoj and I read it together for three hours. After that, he asked, 'When do you want to shoot?' So first, Sharmila ji said yes in three days, and right after her, I went to Manoj. These two people I cast in 2019, and they stuck around for so long, saying, 'Whenever you want to shoot, we’ll do it.'"

He shares, "We keep joking, and I told Manoj, 'We’ve only seen you as a normal person, a cop, or a middle-class guy. Only in Zubeidaa have I seen you as a rich person.' He started laughing and said, 'Nobody casts me as a rich person.'

Rahul shares that he casts every part personally. He says, "Again, because in all the films that Mira and I have done together, we have always been very involved in casting. I thoroughly enjoy working with actors. Also, what people don’t realize is that you have to love your actors for two years - through casting, shooting, and then editing. You have to like the actor. If you don’t like the actor as a person, it becomes difficult to edit them, and then you’ll start hating the scene."

Rahul says that one can't alienate - 'Ye film Bollywood hai, ye un-Bollywood hai. Manoj is as Bollywood as it gets, Sharmila ji is a Bollywood icon. I completely love Bollywood."

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"The thing with Gulmohar that I realized is that yes, it was appreciated, but it was also deeply loved and watched a lot."

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"The film was always titled Gulmohar because, during a particular season, Delhi lanes are filled with Gulmohar trees. It’s a very Delhi-specific flower; it’s very poetic," says Rahul. Another reason for the title was his love for Gulzar’s song “Gulmohar gar tumhara naam hota."