(From left) Ritik Ghanshani, Ayesha Kaduskar and Palash Vaswani on the set of Bada Naam Karenge. Pics/Instagram

He says Sooraj Barjatya wanted to collaborate with him because the veteran filmmaker loved how he brought simplicity to the screen. However, for director Palash Vaswani of Gullak fame, it was a dream come true. Vaswani had always wanted to create a love story, but making a show with the signature Rajshri touch while ensuring it remained relatable across all age groups was a challenge. Bada Naam Karenge commenced in April and concluded filming in October. However, the team spent nine months refining the script before beginning production.

In conversation with mid-day, Vaswani discusses how he drew inspiration from real-life stories of people from small towns to shape the narrative, what he learnt from Barjatya, and how he expresses himself through his storytelling. Edited excerpts from the interview.

The series is my tribute to Maine Pyar Kiya [1989]. I still love watching the film. These kinds of stories are missing from screens nowadays. You no longer see innocent romances with a couple in the foreground and the family in the background. The kind of storytelling seen in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [1995], Hum Aapke Hain Koun [1994], and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai [1998] is absent in the Hindi film belt, though it still exists in south films. This was my attempt to revive that genre.

Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani [2023] is a similar film, but there was a long gap before it. The last such film I remember is Kal Ho Naa Ho [2003]. Today, if I wish to tell that kind of story, how do I narrate it? I must use a contemporary approach with new voices, so that it resonates with people. The OTT audience is quite young, so connecting with them first—who may then share it with their parents—makes the series ideal for community watching.

I come from a small town, Raipur, though I have lived in Mumbai since 2007, so I understand the dynamics in both places. Films today do not focus on relatability. If you watch Premalu [2024], it precisely fills that gap; Hridayam [2022] is also a pure college romance. These stories were once told in Hindi cinema but not anymore. Such people exist and are in the majority, yet we do not create content they can relate to. This is why people from the Hindi belt increasingly connect with south movies.

Raipur has a significant Marwari community. They are business-oriented and wealthy. While they can afford to send their children abroad, they often send them only to Pune. These children do not admit to drinking alcohol or dating because their parents wouldn’t understand and would judge them morally. This happened to a friend’s brother. Similarly, another friend fell in love with a girl he was stuck with during the lockdown for 15 days. For him, those 15 days felt like a film. We are confident people will relate to our show, just like how they reacted to Gullak.

Sooraj sir must have seen my work in Gullak [seasons 2 and 3], and people from SonyLIV recommended me. I received a call from Rajshri Productions, stating that Sooraj sir wanted to meet me. Despite being a towering personality, he is simple and clear about his vision and what he wants to convey. He told me he loved Gullak and that not everyone could capture simplicity the way I did. When he narrated Bada Naam Karenge, the story resonated with me, particularly as I come from a small town. Moreover, I had always wanted to make a love story, and the chance to work with him was unmissable. 

I learnt how to tell a story in a massy way and reach a wider audience by focusing on content. S. Mansvi, Sooraj sir, Vidit Tripathi [writer of Gullak season 4], and I worked on the story for nine months. I was insistent that we perfect the script on paper before starting production. We rewrote several drafts until we were confident, only then moving to pre-production. Since it was a Rajshri project, it needed their signature touch, so Sooraj sir was involved during pre-production. On set, he observed but never interfered, even when I sought his direction. 

Casting took six months because we needed actors who believed in the story. We chose newcomers to avoid expectations nor will the audience have any preconceived notion about them. The leads, [Ritik Ghanshani and Ayesha Kaduskar], were superb and carried the strong themes effortlessly.  

During a table read, Kanwaljit [Singh] sir had a scene where he had to cry, but he felt his character wouldn’t. However, I insisted because the climax depended on it. In my stories, men cry. I think I am unable to emote so these emotions come out in my story. He agreed to do it both ways, but after one take, he was convinced by my vision. Watching him perform that scene brought tears to everyone’s eyes.

In August, mid-day had reported that Swara Bhasker would play nine characters in Mrs Falani (Swara has nine lives, Aug 17). The actor, and director duo Manish Kishore and Madhukar Verma took the anthology on floors in Chhattisgarh last week. While the nine short stories were originally to be shot across India, the unit will now shoot a large chunk of the project in Chhattisgarh.

In an interesting development, the makers have imagined Bhasker’s characters — varying from the ages of 30 to 42 — as hailing from nine different states, including West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and more.

“We are creating a distinct back-story for each part, and I will sport distinct makeup, costumes and accents,” begins the actor, last seen in Jahaan Chaar Yaar (2022).

With a homemaker at its centre, each story studies a different facet of women’s aspirations. Playing multiple roles may be a dream opportunity, but it comes with the responsibility of making each part well-defined.

Bhasker says, “The best way to approach them is to identify one or two defining personality traits of each role. So, one character can be innocent or vulnerable, another is flamboyant yet repressed, while [the third] could be a bit absent-minded. That’s how we have differentiated them emotionally.”

Having found their emotional graph, the next step entailed making them disparate in terms of looks. The actor turned to prosthetics to achieve it.

“We have used prosthetics where we needed a significant difference [visually]. Making the mould was the scariest experience of my life. I felt as if I was being mummified,” she laughs, before adding, “The nine characters come from different contexts. I am mindful of the accents — for instance, the dialects used in eastern and western Uttar Pradesh are different. Mrs Falani is one of the most challenging movies I have done. I am scared whether I’ll be able to pull it off.”

For one of the roles, the actor had to get her nose pierced. “A nose piercing is [common] among Indian housewives, especially in the world that we are depicting. I didn’t have the time to do it in Mumbai. So, we had a local jeweller in Raipur come on set and do it.”

The war between the once thick mama-bhanja jodi, Govinda and Krushna Abhishek, is far from over. It’s been three years since their fallout, and they are yet to resolve their differences. The latest on the front is that Krushna refused to shoot in an upcoming episode of The Kapil Sharma Show, which will feature Govinda and his wife, Sunita Ahuja, as celebrity guests. This is the second time that Krushna has opted out of an episode featuring his mama. In November last year, Krushna did not perform when Govinda and Sunita graced the comedy show.

When we reached out to Krushna, he said, “Since the past 15 days, I have been shuttling between Raipur and Mumbai to shoot for my film and Kapil’s show. I would always go that extra mile to adjust my dates for the show. However, when I learnt that they would be appearing as celebrity guests in the upcoming episode, I didn’t want to be a part of it, so I didn’t try to adjust my dates. I believe both parties don’t wish to share a stage.”

He added, “Yeh meri taraf se bhi hoga aur unki taraf se bhi hoga. Also, it’s a comedy show. Pata nahi kaun si baat lekar badi baat bann jaye aur phir wohi sab hoga ki aisa bol diya waisa bol diya. I didn’t want to create an issue. I am sure that the audience waits in anticipation for my gig when Govinda ji comes on the show, but I realised that it was better not to perform. Artistes bahut emotional hote hain. Unko kaam karna chahiye par aise bhi nahi jahaan dono ko ek doosre ko dekhna nahi hai. Things are still the same between us and issues haven’t been resolved.”

Krushna says that he has never questioned Kapil Sharma and the creative team on their decision to invite Govinda even though the two can’t see eye to eye. He added, “Why should the team spoil their relationship with Govinda? It’s a family matter...an internal matter. Kapil is extremely fond of him and shares a great bond with him. I wouldn’t want Kapil to spoil his equation with him.”

While there was news about some trouble between the two over the past few years, their ties further strained in 2018, after Govinda’s wife Sunita took offence to Kashmera Shah’s (Krushna’s wife) tweet about some ‘people who dance for money.’ Sunita alleged that tweet referred to Govinda, and they decided to cut off ties with Krushna and Kashmera. In 2019, too, when Govinda, Sunita and their daughter Tina Ahuja came on Kapil’s show, Krushna was missing apparently because Sunita didn’t want to share the stage with him. We reached out to Govinda for a comment, but the actor didn’t respond till the time of going to press.

Singer-anchor Aditya Narayan was in the center of a controversy on Monday, when a video of him abusing a private airline's staffer at the Raipur airport went viral. “Let me reach Mumbai. If I don't strip you naked, my name is not Aditya Narayan,“ he was seen shouting (in Hindi) in the footage, apparently shot by a co-passenger.

While Aditya remained unavailable for comment, his father, singer Udit Narayan, spoke to BT about the incident. He said, “Aditya is a well-behaved child, and he has never lost his patience like this before. I am sure this outburst was momentary. Having said that, I haven't spoken to him about this issue, yet. I tried reaching out, but he didn't answer my calls; neither did he call back later. This is the age of social media, where every act of a person is scrutinized. Even small mistakes are not spared. I am a simple man who leads a simple life. So, if people think that fame and lineage have gone to Aditya's head, it is not true. Since I was not present there, what more can I say? I just hope people treat this as a one-off incident and forget it.“

The altercation apparently ensued at the airport after a female staff member of the airline told one of Aditya's group members that they would have to pay Rs 13,000 more for the 40 kg of excess baggage that they were carrying from Raipur to Mumbai. However, Aditya refused to pay more than Rs 10,000. Later, the airline alleged that Aditya had used “unparliamentary language with the female staff member“, and allowed him to board the flight only after he apologised.

Hollywood director Param Gill's Bollywood debut Waarrior Savitri has landed him in trouble. The film, scheduled for release in India and the US on August 25, has apparently received backlash for its depiction of the Hindu goddess (Savitri) as a modern, 21st-century woman. Effigies bearing the image of Gill have been reportedly burnt in Raipur, Ludhiana and a few places in India. We hear, Gill has also received threats and his personal website was hacked recently. Religious fundamentalists have assumed the film to be a Western influence on an important character from mythology, thus diluting its message. In the trailer, the goddess is shown practicing martial arts to combat her enemies. Savitri, played by Niharica Raizada, depicts sexual intimacy in certain portions and will be seen wearing bold outfits in the film, which is set in Las Vegas.

Speaking from Los Angeles, Gill says, “I was inspired by the Nirbhaya case. I think women need to empower themselves. They should learn martial arts for self-defence.“

Gill and lead actress Lucy Pinder were set to board the flight for Mumbai from LA to promote the film. But fearing security issues, they chose not to. “It's frustrating to not be able to come to India to promote my first Bollywood film,“ says Pinder.