Debacle of their production house Phantom can’t hamper his 25-year friendship with filmmaker Kashyap, says Sacred Games 2 show-runner Vikramaditya Motwane
Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; August 2, 2019)

Whether or not the # MeToo movement in Bollywood aptly penalised those accused of sexual harassment is debatable, but it did cripple Phantom Films after Vikas Bahl, one of the production house’s four pillars, found himself in the infamous list. Yet, the debacle of the company couldn’t hamper the equation that co-founders Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap share, as the former tells us while discussing his forthcoming offering, Sacred Games 2.

“I have known him for 25 years and he is my closest friend. We are absolutely comfortable [working together]. At the same time, we can even kill each other. We have our creative differences. The Phantom story may be over, but I will continue to collaborate with Anurag,” says Motwane, who is the show-runner of Kashyap-directed Sacred Games 2, after co-directing the first season of Netflix’s project with him.

Pick out any list that chronicles noteworthy digital originals cropping out of India, and it’s hard to miss the mention of the Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer. Evidently then, we aren’t surprised when Motewane says he is often prodded by eager fans, even in washrooms, on the fate of the cherished characters. Given the secrecy attached with the production, all that he can do to assuage them is promise that “All loose ends will tie up.”

Even before it set the bar for other web shows from the country, Sacred Games was a front-runner in the fact that it featured Khan as the first Bollywood bigwig to take the digital plunge. It’s possibly the responsibility that attaches itself with this feat that had Khan up his act. “Saif gets so caught up in the zone that [sometimes], fours hours after the shoot is over, he will remember a certain close-up shot and [mull over it]. He’ll then ask if it could be shot again. I would have to tell him it is [late at] night and that he must go back to sleep. Saif can be really funny. He gets extremely excited, like a child.”

Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; November 15, 2018)

The passing away of Marvel legend Stan Lee has left a deep void in the hearts of those who lived his vivid imagination. Lee’s first Indian superhero character was launched as a comic book — Chakra the Invincible — back in 2011. The comic revolved around an Indian teenager, Raju Rai, a tech genius living in Mumbai, who is determined to use science to unlock the secrets of human potential.

In 2016, it was reported that a live-action movie on the comic book will be directed by Vikramaditya Motwane.

We spoke to Vikramaditya about this and he said, “Stan Lee has been an inspiration to every comic lover in the world and I’m no exception. I met him four years ago in LA, and he was energetic, humourous and totally lovable. We’ve been working on an adaptation of Chakra and it’s sad that he won’t be able to see it come to life.”

Speaking of his favourite superhero character created by Lee, Vikram said, “My favourite character is Spider-Man because he is believable. He had problems and was an everyday hero. Spider-Man set the template for a whole generation of comics, and also for the subsequent mega-successful film adaptations.”

The director added, “It goes without saying that he has had an influence on my work, especially in Bhavesh Joshi. I will definitely miss his creations, humour and cameos.”

Vikramaditya Motwane opens up on Twitter on the #MeToo controversy and his erstwhile producer-partner
MUMBAI MIRROR (October 8, 2018)

I didn’t hear about the incident between Vikas and the girl when it happened in 2015. The first time I heard of it was in March 2017, when Anurag called me and told me about it. Madhu (Mantena), me and Anurag sat with the girl and she told us the whole story, in the same detail as in the article. It was hard to hear and it horrified us.

We immediately began to take action. We offered suspending Vikas from the company for a long period of time, not letting him produce or direct, taking away his signatory rights as well as sending him to rehabilitation. She agreed. So did Vikas, who had no memory of the incident. We also worked towards formalising this and even taking steps towards documenting these terms.

However, I was informed by Anurag that the girl was unwilling to pursue this matter any further because her boyfriend didn’t want her to make her name public.

Anurag and Shubhra (Shetty) tried very hard to convince her not to back away but the boyfriend was firm. He said that “they will find their own method to make Vikas pay”. (All of the above is something that Anurag and Shubhra told the writer of the article but it’s not in there.)

Of all the various remedies offered then to the girl and us, which included suspending him (Vikas) from the office, stripping him of any signing authority and not allowing him to produce films — we did all of it.

For those of you accusing me of being complicit, creating a boys club, and protecting Vikas — I was silent in the press because I felt I was trying to make things right in a manner that, at all times, sought to protect the identity of the girl in question, without assigning any doubt whatsoever to her version of what had transpired, and most importantly, on terms that she wanted and expressly agreed to then.

I’m truly sorry about what happened to the girl. Vikas Bahl is a sexual offender. He’s preyed on a young woman, abused her trust, ruined her life. The scars are going to stay and that just isn’t right.

The only thing I can offer now is an apology. And the only thing I can say is that this will never happen again on my watch.

Rachit Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; May 30, 2018)

Filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane’s new film Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, which releases on June 1, is an actionpacked thriller and perhaps his most challenging film yet. In a chat with BT, the acclaimed director talks about the thrills and spills of making a superhero movie and the anticipation around Harshvardhan Kapoor’s second film in Bollywood.

Like Gotham needs Batman, does Mumbai need a figure like Bhavesh Joshi to save the day?
I don’t think we’re there yet. I’ve seen the city transition from Bombay to Mumbai over the years. It seems like Mumbai has no one to care for it. The need to make Bhavesh Joshi Superhero came from this feeling. The over-construction, the overpopulation, the pollution and the corruption are all so rampant. You feel ki koi toh ho aisa jo iss city ka khayal rakh sake. So, the idea of the film stems from a boyhood fantasy of wearing a mask, picking up a stick and going to do something about the city. What that something is, turns out to be a violent fantasy sort of situation in Bhavesh Joshi... I’m a superhero and comic book fan, so you could say that this was my one chance to go out and make the film of my dreams. It’s a movie where I can do all these cool action sequences, martial arts fights and chase sequences. It’s like a mixture of all those things coming together and making a story.

You have stacks of Batman comics, loads of superhero posters and memorabilia. Was the idea of making a superhero film always on the cards?
One of my all-time favourite action films is Die Hard (1988). Since then, I’ve been an action buff. Superhero films always have a great deal of action, so you have to deliver on that promise. When you walk into a theatre to watch a superhero film, you go expecting to see a story that has good action. In that sense, making Bhavesh Joshi Superhero was like killing two birds with one stone.

Lately, Bollywood action films like Baaghi 2 (2018) have managed to up the ante, especially when it comes to the quality of stunts. Is it due to the influence of the West and the fact that foreign technicians are now working in our movies as well?
We called for two choreographers from France, Cyril Raffaelli and Sebastian Seveau. Cyril has worked on the Die Hard movies; he played Captain Tomasso in the District 13 films. He’s a parkour and combat expert. Sebastian has been part of the Bourne series. The value that they’ve added to the film has literally taken it to the next level. The action looks all natural; it’s not what you see in a typical Hindi film. It’s real and gritty and can literally blow you away.

So will the action in Bhavesh Joshi... be a complete departure from the usual high-flying stuff in Hindi movies, where we see people catapulted several feet into the air?
Just look at the greatest action films of all time, you don’t even need to look at Hollywood. The action in Sholay (1975) is so intense and charged with emotion that it’s integral to the film. It’s just a question of designing the action scenes in a way that they don’t become over the top. Even the Marvel movies have OTT action, but there’s always a good reason for it. You don’t get up and say, ‘Chalo abb action karte hain.’ In Bhavesh Joshi..., the action blends into the narrative seamlessly. Action never works if you don’t feel for the person who’s at the centre of it. If you don’t want them to escape, fight or get out of a tight spot, then you’re not going to feel anything.

How much of the film is about crime fighting and how much of it is about social change?
I won’t call it a film about social change; it’s not preachy as such. It’s about a scam and how somebody gets involved and then someone tries to change all that. There is an idea of social change, but basically, it’s just about a hero, a villain, a scam, action and stunts.

There’s no real benchmark for superhero movies in Hindi cinema. Yes, we’ve seen commercial success with the few entries into the genre, but nothing has really hit bullseye. Typically, Hindi superhero films tend to mimic what Hollywood does in the genre. Do you agree?
I’m trying to make a cottage industry superhero. He’s a guy with no resources. He’s not Bruce Wayne with unlimited money that he can use to become Batman. This guy has bare minimum funds. Woh apni gaadi bechke, jo paise milte hai, uss se superhero banta hai. Homemade mask, homemade costume, homemade batons, homemade training… he’s like a product of a small-scale industry. Thanks to this approach, my film has got its own ethos, one that we have built from scratch. We’re not borrowing from anywhere. Every superhero movie has its own set of tropes. You need the hero to have a conflict, before he can become the superhero. So we’ve done that, but the rest of the way Bhavesh Joshi... is a whole new film.

Why did you choose Harshvardhan Kapoor for this role?
Initially, I was working with Imran Khan and then later, we tried Sidharth Malhotra as well. But things didn’t work out. After the 2014 elections, I changed the script. While I was changing it, I found out that the character had also changed from being someone very angry and upfront, to someone who’s a little lost and is trying to find his way in life. Harsh fit into that mould very well. The character wants to go out there and do the right thing, but does he have the strength to pull it off? Harsh lent himself to the uncertainty of the character.

This year, superhero films like Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2 have done fantastic business at the Indian box office. Does that give you hope for your homemade superhero?
I hope so. At this point in time, we can’t really compete with Hollywood and the kind of films they make. I feel we’re still finding an audience when it comes to comic book culture and superhero stories. From the Indian perspective, you either follow DC or Marvel and if you’re a local fanboy, then you have stuff like Raj Comics’ Doga. But Bhavesh Joshi... has no such references at all. He comes with a clean slate. For the first time, we are making the movie first, and maybe, the comic or graphic novel will come later on. I know there’s a bit of a risk involved, but I feel it’s a good risk. The superhero bit is just one perspective; the other side of the film is inspired by Hindi films of the ’70s and ’80s that featured the angry young man. That’s the real source of the film.

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero is about a man who wants to transform his city, much like its maker Vikramaditya Motwane
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; May 27, 2018)

Vikramaditya Motwane, who is readying for the release of his upcoming film Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, says the movie is about a b***** d child. Except, the protagonist is not a person, but a city. This city.

With star kid Harshvardhan Kapoor playing Bhavesh, the film uses a superhero premise to discuss the water mafia, and what happens when vigilantes take matters in their own hands. The story started off as one film about a man, keen to take care of his street, but changed gears somewhere. “I have been here 40 years, but my love for the city faded away when Bombay became Mumbai. I have mixed feelings about it now, although I can't live anywhere else. It's treated like a b****** child, which no one cares about. Everyone just wants to leech off it. People around the world take pride in where they live. Not us,” says the director before he gets into the studio for a morning edit.

At 41, Motwane is old enough to know that a superhero cannot solve a megalopolis’ crises. But Batman and Superman arrived on the scene, he argues, because justice failed. “It takes one brave person to change society. Come watch my movie, and have fun, and if you walk away with being inspired to do the right thing, great. Make a change, and be a hero yourself," he smiles.

Like Bhavesh then, Motwane is grappling with ills that threaten to destroy his city. Midday discusses what gets Motwane’s goat, over a cup of morning coffee.

Traffic
Traffic management is a nationwide problem. Cars are weapons; how can you let anyone and everyone drive? We all know how easy it is to get a license. I read somewhere that around 382 people die every day on our roads. Anywhere else, there would be a suit filed against the RTO for murder. And, we don’t have pavements. Pedestrians have first right of way, but if they don’t have anywhere to walk, they will walk the road and it’s up to motorists to avoid them. This often leads to traffic snarls and accidents.

Bombay has a phenomenal public transport system, but it’s ageing. And so, people like myself drive. But traffic makes it stressful.

Garbage disposal
My apartment in Juhu started a waste management programme six months ago. It’s 2018 and we are talking about segregation now! An incident, actually one of many, that led me to make Bhavesh Joshi was watching a mother and son eat pizza in heir car, and then fling the box and remains on the street. The other side to this conundrum is that the city doesn’t have enough dustbins, and those that are there get stolen. But how do you blame a scavenger for wanting to make money off scrap metal?

Water harvesting
My father owns a building in Juhu. A few years ago, he got a waste water harvesting system installed there. Through it, dirty water is cleaned up and goes back into loos for flushing. It cost him only two-and-half lakh rupees. Every housing society can do it. We suffer floods every year in low lying areas because we get sufficient rain and our drains are clogged, but we waste that water.

Pollution
I have a three-year-old daughter and she gets a cold every other day. It’s nothing but the polluted air that we breathe that’s causing it. No one is working towards stopping it. We use too many cars, especially older cars. We don’t have an incentive to use public transport anymore. I love walking — I walk to my mixing studio, which is one kilometre from home. I don’t mind the heat, but just give me a pavement to walk. Because if you can’t walk comfortably, you will end up using transport.

Filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane on his upcoming films
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 29, 2017)

Vikramaditya Motwane would be happy to shoot for 100 days a year, every year for the rest of his life. Right now, he’s busy filming his vigilante-drama, Bhavesh Joshi, with Harshvardhan Kapoor in the titular role and Nishikant Kamath as the baddie. The film, which was stalled three times, before the filmmaker got rolling last year, will launch debutante Shreyah Sabharwal as the leading lady.

“Over the years, I’ve learnt that there are actors like Rajkummar Rao, whom I recently directed in Trapped, who give the best shot only in the first take. If you ask for a retake, it loses its effect. But if you ask him to do the same scene with a completely different emotion, he’ll surprise you. Then there’s Sonakshi Sinha, my Lootera heroine, who aces the second shot, using the first take as a prep,” he informs.

So, is Harsh a first or a second-take actor? “He has a lot of magic!” exclaims Vikramaditya. “You don’t know when it’s going to come and I just keep throwing Harsh against a wall. Once he sticks, he’s brilliant!”

Next up, he plans to revive another project. “I want to revisit AK v/s SK with Shahid Kapoor too. The two of us have decided to work on it in the near future, just don’t know when,” he reveals. The film is an urban-thriller set in Mumbai and features Anurag Kashyap as ‘AK’. The two had even shot for it for a few days in September 2015.

Vikramaditya Motwane, on why he will make fringe festival films, but doesn’t want to be identified as a director who does
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; October 12, 2015)

When Vikramaditya Motwane, a man who got recognised and hailed for the slim-budgeted indie film, Udaan — which went onto pique curiosity at international film fests, and even swept trophies at one of India’s biggest mainstream film awards — says he doesn’t want to be called a “festival film director”, we think that odd. It’s odder still because of the timing. The 38-year-old’s last film as producer was another indie — the 2015 release, Masaan (Crematorium), which received a rare standing ovation at Cannes.

Let’s add another irony. His last commercial, non-festival film, Lootera, starring marquee names Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, was a visual treat but declared one of 2013’s biggest flops.

“A ‘festival’ tag, sometimes, alienates your audience. It’s hard for smaller, indie movies. They not only have to be good, but very good. That’s the only way word of mouth will work, and draw people into the halls,” he explains.

It’s a little while before indie movies do well at the box office, if they ever do. It’s a game of “should” vs “would”, he thinks. “Of course, multiplexes should play more of the smaller films, and for longer, but will they? Most probably not,” he says.

But festivals like Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) have been ambassadors for small budget cinema. Motwane has directed this year’s MAMI campaign film, which sees film personalities from the industry narrate their connection with the city of dreams. At Phantom’s Oshiwara office, we are discussing why we need film fests to showcase a niche film like Masaan.

Masaan (directed by Neeraj Ghyawan, who assisted Kashyap on Gangs of Wasseypur), although critically acclaimed and a poignant love story played out against the ghats of Benaras, was released in theatres immediately after the success at Cannes, it barely managed to recover costs.

Motwane chooses to laugh in self-deprecation. “We released it in France and Belgium too, but they were having a ‘good’ summer, and so, no one went to the movies. Everyone was at the beach.”

Behind the humour is a lesson learnt and filed away. A sharper budget, a better name could’ve helped. “How do you sustain a marketing campaign for less? How do we distribute better? How can we go bigger internationally?” These are the questions that Motwane and his partners, Vikas Bahl, Anurag Kashyap and Madhu Mantena, of Phantom are asking. Even the cult-classic, Bombay Velvet, made on a budget of Rs 84 crore, proved teacher.

“Research said that people didn't come for the movie because they didn’t like Ranbir’s hair! The trailer was all wrong, too,” says Motwane, bluntly. “And once again, it’s about spending less, always spending less.”

Phantom’s next release, Shaandaar is a masala film with popular names — Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt — set against the big fat Indian wedding. Its over-the-top song picturisation and larger-than-life romance is a fry cry from Masaan’s middle-class setting. It’s a film that the trio hopes will rake in the money to help them continue to “make movies we love to make.” He is aware that what they need is a robust business model. “Of course, you want to make profits, you want to grow with every film. We have realised we don’t want to restrict ourselves to one kind of movie. We want to make movies for everyone.”

And so, Phantom’s indie spirit will continue to glow in Abhishek Chaubey’s next story about the drugs business in Punjab. Anurag Kashyap’s directorial next is, says Motwane, a small film, as is his own, AK vs SK starring Shahid Kapoor.

“With these [indie] movies, you don’t think let's-make-money. Neeraj Ghaywan’s career has taken off post it, and Phantom has grown. Sometimes, the investment return is not about money but brand equity,” he explains.

Motwane is optimistic about the independent film scene. In the last year, Marathi film Killa, Bengali film Labour of Love and Tamil movie Kaaka Muttai have all seen critical success. “It’s been a good year, won’t you say? It will only grow from here,” he says. “You can’t compare them to the big movies like Bajrangi Bhaijaan. But once in a decade, an indie film comes and breaks through that ceiling.” Let’s hope that’s coming soon.