“It’s not a comforting feeling when you are pouring your heart out in the open,” begins Nitesh Tiwari, acknowledging that it could not have been an easy decision for Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi to come on board Break Point. The ZEE5 series would, after all, make the tennis champions revisit the chapter they had left behind — their glorious years of partnership in men’s doubles tennis that resulted in many Grand Slam wins and major titles, before it all unravelled. But a meeting with Tiwari and filmmaker-wife Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari quelled their fears about the project.

“We planned to approach it through the eyes of a common friend who also happens to be their fan. He [assured] them that it would be a neutral perspective. We said we’ll present facts to the people; that gave them a lot of comfort,” says Tiwari, grateful that his subjects laid their lives bare for the series. “Leander and Mahesh allowed us to be better storytellers by opening up to us.”

Presenting a dramatised version of the events was out of the question for the director duo. Through the series, they intended to address the reasons behind the Lee-Hesh split. “As a fan boy, I was heartbroken [when they parted ways]. A lot of questions were left unanswered. If we told the story as a creative version, those questions would not be answered. We thought the best way of telling the story was to have both Lee and Mahesh speak about it. [We also included the accounts] of their friends and families, their partners and rivals, thus giving a balanced perspective.”

While Tiwari and Iyer have worked together in various capacities, Break Point sees the couple share directorial responsibilities for the first time. “We share our duties at home where each knows what s/he should be handling. For instance, I teach math and science to my children because of my engineering background, and Ashwiny handles social science and arts. Similarly, at work, we [divided the responsibilities]. If someone is taking care of a particular department, the other person has the right to give his opinion, but the final call will rest with the person handling the department.”

In 1999, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi appeared to be an unstoppable force, winning two Grand Slam titles. But in a few years, the Indian Express — as they were dubbed — screeched to an abrupt halt as the two split, leaving fans across the country heartbroken. Filmmakers Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari have attempted to examine India’s greatest men’s doubles tennis players with their docu drama, Break Point. “Here, we are talking about two legends and their glory. At the same time, it’s a story of the dos and don’ts for the youngsters of this country who are [embarking on] any kind of partnership,” says Iyer.

The ZEE5 project, while studying all that went right and wrong with the Lee-Hesh partnership, will focus on their Wimbledon win in 1999. It marks Iyer’s first attempt at co-direction with husband Tiwari. “As storytellers and directors, we are different from each other, but what we want to achieve is the same. It’s not that we have not worked in the past. We have worked together for almost 21 years [in] different capacities. We know our strengths and we continuously work on them, so that there is no break point [between us],” she quips.

It has been a busy year for the director, who extended her storytelling ability to the written word as she released her debut novel, Mapping Love. Has she considered adapting it for the screen? “I wanted to always write the story as a novel because it’s poetic and metaphorical in nature. If I had to develop it as a screenplay, I would have written it differently. But now that the book is out, if my producer friends want to make a movie out of it, I would like to because I am a storyteller at the end of the day.”