Making a historical drama is a big responsibility. Bigger even, when the subject is one of the bloodiest chapters of Indian history. Creator Ram Madhvani is aware of the responsibility he is shouldering as he makes The Waking Of A Nation, a six-part series centred on the Hunter Commission that was established in October 1919 to investigate the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The creator-director, however, points out that his series is historical fiction.

“There were five British and three Indians in the Hunter Commission. The Indians walked out, saying that what they called investigation was, in fact, white-washing. So, this series looks at that investigation,” he starts, when we get on a call.

“There is this term called historical fiction. If you go into a bookshop, there will be a whole range of books [under the genre of] historical fiction. I suppose they are inspired by true events. This is a story [told] from our characters’ point of view.”

Researching a historical subject can be strenuous. More importantly, it can be a tricky affair. Madhvani agrees, noting that a critical factor in the genre is the lens you view the story from. He explains, “There are so many versions of [history]. Our tale is, in some ways, fictional. But I read and did my due diligence. I’m interested in that part of our colonial past. Many years ago, I did a short film called This Bloody Line, which was about Sir Cyril Radcliffe. The fact that he drew a line in one month and divided this country, when he had never been to India before, was fascinating to me.”

“I’m interested in how there has been a cultural colonization. So many things have been, in some ways, stolen from us. The Waking of a Nation is really about racism and prejudice,” says Madhvani of the Sony LIV series—starring Carl Wharton and Krishnakant Singh Bundela—that is currently in post-production.

From Neerja (2016) to Aarya and now, The Waking of a Nation, regardless of the genre his stories belong to, he says a common thread runs through them all. “I’m always figuring out how to do stories that have some kind of philosophy and spirituality in them. The first season of Aarya had the Bhagavad Gita. I used Sanskrit shlokas. That comes from my father and the books that surrounded me, and from my father-in-law, who is a freedom fighter and a Sanskrit scholar. So, The Waking of a Nation has the lead character named after my father, and is dedicated to my in-laws.”

Even as the historical offering has him consumed at the moment, one wonders about the fate of Aarya, led by Sushmita Sen. The revenge drama was one of Disney+ Hotstar’s most acclaimed shows, with the first season even earning an International Emmy nomination. Amid the platform’s merger with Jio, has he been pursued to bring out the next season of Aarya?

“Right now, because of the merger, we have to decide when Aarya is landing. I think people want to see it, and we would like to make more [seasons].  We have two more seasons. So, we will see whether that happens. That show changed me. It made me realize the scope of my job and the joy of long-format storytelling.”

Ram Madhvani pulled off a feat almost unheard of in Bollywood when he shot Dhamaka in 10 days. That too, in December 2020, only months after the first wave of the pandemic had waned. But then, the filmmaker is known to have a unique style of working—he uses multiple cameras at a point in time, and employs the ‘360-degree system’, where an actor is not restricted by demarcations on the floor and is free to walk anywhere on the set while enacting a scene. While it is an unconventional method, Madhvani says that Kartik Aaryan, the leading man of Dhamaka, took to it seamlessly.

“Kartik surrendered to the way I work and the system that I work in. It usually takes a lot of time for people to understand [this method]. I work with a lot of cameras, and employ the 360-degree system. It sounds abstract, and some day, I will write a book about what the 360-degree system [entails]. I don’t mould any actor; they have to commit to the part,” says the director, who is the mind behind Neerja (2016) and Aarya (2020).

Keen to collaborate with Aaryan for the past three years, Madhvani found the Netflix thriller to be the perfect vehicle to realise his wish. He is touched by the actor’s commitment to his craft, as he explains, “On Day 5 of our shoot, I was unable to coordinate several cameras. So, I told my team that we’ll shoot it the traditional way with one camera. Thankfully, Kartik said, ‘No sir, let’s not go the traditional way.’ That was the kind of faith I saw in him.”

The thriller, which sees Aaryan as a news anchor chasing TRPs while Mumbai is under attack, is an adaptation of the Korean film, The Terror Plan (2013). While Korean films have caught global attention after Parasite (2019), the director says they have long been on his radar. “I have been following Korean cinema for the past 20-25 years. I watch their work just like I watch other international movies. I am always interested in good work, and that’s a country producing good content.”

Renowned ad-filmmaker Ram Madhvani is back to cinema after a gap of 14 years. In his self-imposed exile from the arclights, there were several notable achievements. His commercial for Happy Dent (a Silver and Bronze Lion winner at Cannes) was voted among the top 20 commercials of the millennium. He made the documentary, Everlasting Light on Amitabh Bachchan for the Lincoln Center, America. He directed a song each for Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par, and more recently for Satyamev Jayate. And, through all of this, Ram's childhood passion for cinema didn't diminish. Drawn to cinema, like a moth to a flame, he speaks animatedly about his first Hindi film Neerja. It is a biopic based on braveheart Neerja Bhanot, the Pan Am flight stewardess, who died in a terrorist crossfire, shielding children onboard a hijacked plane; this after she had rescued most other passengers. Between questions, Ram intermittently whoops in the air as compliments pour in from Bollywood biggies for his Friday release. Excerpts from our chat:

So why a 14-year gap between Let's Talk and Neerja?
I think you can say that my riyaaz is over. The 14-year vanvaas isn't the way it is made to seem. I think there is a greater force at work. In hindsight, I think the greater force is saying that Neerja was meant for me. Obviously, I have been working very hard through these years. I did many successful advertising films. There were commercials like-Har ek friend zaroori hota hai, Happy Dent white commercial and countless others. I have been a part of popular culture and speaking successfully to 800 million people. The gap between my two films may have been 14 years, but the important thing is that all I have wanted to do is make films from the age of 16. While still in school, I already knew that I wanted to be a film director. It started because of a haven and a cocoon that I felt when I was inside a movie hall. I'm from a small town, Barshi, near Solapur. My family owned textile mills and sugarcane farms and we also have four theatres in our town. Growing up, I had the privilege of being introduced to the first-day, first-show culture, and that's how I saw films like Jugnu, Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Kal Aaj Aur Kal. It was in this atmosphere that I forgot myself, but it was here that I also learnt to feel. A big part of my upbringing was full of Hindi cinema.

Only Hindi cinema?
No, there was English cinema as well.I was in St Peter's School in Panchgani and there I watched The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin at the Assembly Hall, where they would put up a speaker and show films from a 16mm projector. I still clearly remember the steel trunk that had the film cans in it. As we helped unload them, we would look at each other and ask, 'I wonder what this film is? Do you think it will be a Western today?' Sometimes, the 16mm film would burn and the projector would stop. And we would all go 'Awww...'. Later, one of my friends pointed out to me that perhaps I was intoxicated with the smell of the burning film, and that is why movies are such an integral part of me.

So Hindi cinema scored above Western cinema, right?
Before we talk about this, I want to tell you that my two older brothers played a big role in my life. While still in college, I lost my father and I had to earn a living. My middle brother was into photography and I owe my musical upbringing to him. And my elder brother was in the diamond business. He invited me to stay with him in New York, and while I assisted him during the day, in the evening I went to New York University and learnt filmmaking. There I saw the works of Satyajit Ray, Federico Fellini, Andrei Tarkovsky and other masters. I had the opportunity to stay back in New York, but I wanted to come back and tell stories to our people in our way. I was, I am and will always prefer Indian cinema. Songs are a must in our movies, gaane ka mounting kya hota hai? Everything about our cinema is distinct. Like...why the scene immediately after intermission is called the channa-mumra point. Hero ki entry point kya hai; climax, pre-climax, we have such a different way of telling our stories. I am not interested in listening to Western laws of cinema. Our films do not serve up courses, they serve the full thali.

According to you, which films have represented a complete thali?
Too many films have served up the entire thali. It would be impossible to name them. Talking about my films, I aspire to be a humanist. I am interested in the landscape of the human face. I am interested in the various rasas the sringar ras; the bhayanaka ras. I am in the business of feelings. My job as a filmmaker is to give you a com plete experience. You should cry, laugh and feel love through the course of a film. We must continue making 'complete' films because this is our tradition. We cannot allow cultural colonisation and should not ape the West. We have to talk to our people in our language, in our own way. When you see Neerja, you will notice that my attempt is to be uniquely Indian.

At the trailer launch you said you were blessed to work with Shabana Azmi and Sonam Kapoor because they were selfless...
The nice thing about working with Shabana and Sonam were that they were swahridak (like-hearted). We were always on the same page and we shared the same language of cinema. If I told them that the terrorists will enter at 6 am and not any other time, they never questioned me. We would sometimes do a one-and-a-half hour take, of which only five minutes would be retained as only that had been scripted, but my actors never complained. We were trying to reflect something that is real, and Shabana and Sonam contributed to the process tirelessly and selflessly.

Heard one of your assistants prostrated in front of Sonam. Why?
Her master is Bertolt Brecht. Sonam gets into the skin of the character. We had sync sound on set, but due to some mishap, she had to redub one word later. The original scene was shot five months ago, but when Sonam came into the dubbing studio, she went through the whole process to be able to dub just that word the way it should be. I am blessed to have worked with her. My associate director bowed down and touched her feet. Where do you see such dedication? Neerja releases on February 19, and a lot of people who have seen it in previews are saying very good things about the performances. If opinion makers and people who we respect are saying such incredible things, it is very overwhelming.