Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra has spent close to 40 years in the film industry, and has helmed acclaimed films such as Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2005) and Serious Men (2020). However, there’s one thing which he feels still hasn’t changed in cinema — the obsession with stars.

“It’s still star driven. And when they don’t get stars, they concoct the idea of a star by hiring people who were once stars,” says the 63-year-old, whose next, Afwaah, features actors Bhumi Pednekar and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Mishra stresses that the focus should be on talent, skill and the script, rather than just the name of the person in it. “Technicians should get more of a place. Nobody credits a film’s DOP (director of photography). He determines the visual look of a film. They are co-writers and should get pride of place,” he adds.

Has he ever given in to demands to make his film commercially viable? Mishra confesses that he once made a film which he should not have — Calcutta Mail (2003). “I enjoyed working with Anil Kapoor (actor), but the rest of it was something I should have avoided,” he says.

Mostly, he maintains, he gets creative liberty to make films the way he wants. “Whatever the adjustments, it happens in conjunction with me. It’s never, ‘Do this’. It’s always ‘Keep the audience in mind’, ‘Can we have background songs?’ And we have done that so the film gets better visibility. No director makes films for himself,” Mishra concludes.

In 2003, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, a struggling actor then, had dropped in on the Kolkata set of Sudhir Mishra's Calcutta Mail, featuring Anil Kapoor and Rani Mukerji. An admirer of the filmmaker's work, he was hopeful of landing a role in the movie. "I happened to be in the city at that time, and was keen to meet sir [Mishra], hoping that he would consider me suitable for a role, but could not even reach him. I was just another struggler," recounts the actor.

Almost 17 years later, Siddiqui has realised his dream of working with Mishra. The actor is earning rave reviews for his nuanced performance as the ambitious Ayyan Mani in Serious Men. Describing himself as a director's actor, he says, "You have to understand the director's mind. Before the film rolls, there are rounds of meetings and readings, that's when I start internalising what the director wants. I don't take myself too seriously as an actor. I do what I have to, and leave the rest to the audience."

The Netflix film is an adaptation of Manu Joseph's 2010 novel of the same name. The actor did not pore over the book, but followed Mishra's vision to bring alive the protagonist, who is willing to go to any extent to provide a better life to his son. "I could identify with Ayyan's character as I have had my share of struggles in real life. I have a son, so the connection was stronger. Every parent wants the best for his child."

One of the finest actors of the current generation, Siddiqui doesn't shy away from admitting that he was intimidated by Chennai-based co-actor Aakshath Das, who plays his son. "He would come well-prepared on the set, like Hollywood actors do. I realised from the first day of the shoot that yeh toh baazi maar le jaayega; I knew he would steal the show. There is no way of being one-up on a child. I didn't have to be patient with him, but rather scared of him," says Siddiqui.