'Hindus And Muslims Worked On Chhaava''

'With Chhaava, we had to look from a different lens.'
'We had to write it in such a way that apart from the sacrifice, the fight and the war, there's a lot more to understand about the history of Marathas.'

Chhaava continues to rake in big numbers at the box office but not without a fair share of controversy.

The Vicky Kaushal-starrer once again ran into troubled waters when Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis held the film liable for Aurangzeb anger that ignited unrest in Nagpur.

Co-writer Rishi Virmani, who calls Chhaava his "biggest success", defends the film.

"I have spent my whole life trying to understand why communal rights happen. I don't know whether a film is responsible for it or a person or a politician... or whether it's in the hearts of the people itself," Rishi tells Mayur Sanap/Rediff.com.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis blamed Chhaava for the Nagpur violence and said the film reignited people's emotions against Aurangzeb. How do you address this criticism?

What happened in Nagpur?

A communal riot broke out, centred around Aurangzeb's tomb...

Okay. I did see a bit of it today.

(Takes a pause)

I have spent my whole life trying to understand why communal rights happen.

I don't know whether a film is responsible for it or a person or a politician... or whether it's in the hearts of the people itself.

Both Hindus and Muslims worked on the film very happily.

Did you anticipate such massive success for Chhaava?

No yaar, no one expected that.

We knew it will be received well, but the kind of love we got from the people is quite unprecedented.

There have been films made on Sambhaji Maharaj in the past. What, according to you, connected with the audience about Chhaava?

Actually, I've not seen any of those movies, so it won't be easy for me to say why.

But I think our film covers more about the legend than what the other stories have. Whatever little I have heard of about those films, I think they are based on a few chapters here and there.

For people who are not from Maharashtra, who don't really have much of an idea, you need to offer more information.

Regional films cater to a particular region, right? So they can assume that the audiences already know more about the subject and they don't need to show everything.

With Chhaava, we had to look from a different lens. We had to write it in such a way that apart from the sacrifice, the fight and the war, there's a lot more to understand about the history of the Marathas.

You are one of the five writers who worked on the film (alongside Laxman Utekar, Kaustubh Savarkar, Unman Bankar and Omkar Mahajan). What was the process of writing like?

In these five writers, four are Maharashtrians. I was the odd one out.

They knew the world more than me.

My job primarily was to make sure that every scene should work and connect.

Everybody was a big help in terms of making me understand the world because they have been reading and talking about this since childhood.

You had an up-close view of Vicky Kaushal's prep for the role. How did he transform into Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj?

We just did one narration in the beginning with Vicky and then he got busy with other stuff.

He got into the film right after Sam Bahadur.

He did six to eight months of prep, and did a lot of things like readings, horse riding, sword fighting...

Even in terms of language, nowadays we speak in short forms, abbreviations and Gen Z slang. To speak comfortably in good Hindi was an exercise on its own. A lot of training went into it.

Both Rashmika (Mandanna) and Vicky are really hard working, and they had also done their own research.

Laxman sir spent a lot of time with them. They had a lot of questions (about their characters) but whatever they had, we cleared it out for them.

Even Akshaye Khanna (who plays Aurangzeb) did a lot of reading.

By the time we had met for the second or third time, he had more things to tell you than what you had already researched because he had gone into the character so much.

A video went viral recently showing a large number of people digging near Asirgarh Fort in Burhanpur in the search of Mughal era treasure as mentioned in the film. Did you find it bizarre?

Yes. I definitely did not expect that! If I knew, I would have been the first one to go there!

It's bizarre.

But it's good to see that even now, people are influenced by movies like how they used to be in the past.

I used to hear stories of when Rajesh Khanna was unwell, people would feed medicines to his photographs and pray.

That kind of craze disappeared when the world became smaller because of phones and social media. It's good to see that that even now, cinema has that impact on people.

Vicky Kaushal’s performance is unanimously praised in the film but there is a section that criticised his over-the-top action avatar.

I have not really heard or read too much about people criticising the film. But to each its own.

See, the times are different.

When it's a war-like situation, there will be no peace.

You will not have people sitting quietly in a corner and having a cup of tea. It's a matter of life and death.

It's a matter of saving your land, your future, your people.

So when it comes to these things, aggression is a very big part of the story. Without it, I don't see the film making sense.

The final 40 minutes of the film are devoted to the gruesome torture that is inflicted on Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Was it by design?

You can say that.

Whoever knew about the subject wanted to know how we are going to show that part.

Everybody has read about it in various books but nobody has any idea of how it can look. We felt the pressure of making sure that that portion should be the biggest takeaway for the film.

Everybody is anticipating that part to come, so we had to spend some time on it for people to connect with it.

It couldn't have been quick.

When the script was being crafted, we had to design the film in such a way that the climax is more than half of the second half.

Do you see Chhaava as a turning point in your career?

It is my biggest film so far. But as far as my career is concerned, you have to keep doing good work.

One film can give you a few months of mileage. Ultimately, you have to work hard and put in the same effort for every project.

What was your starting point in screenwriting?

I assisted on a couple of films. There was a film called James made by Ramu (2005, Ram Gopal Varma). I was an AD (Assistant Director) on that film. But I was keen on writing.

I used to rewrite the scenes of those films.

The director used to love bits of it and add it in his draft. That encouraged me to write (more).

Then I met R Balki, who was writing Paa and he asked me to co-write with him.

Then from there on there was no looking back. I started writing.

I did Shamitabh, Ki & Ka and Ghoomer with him.

There was also Faaltu, Main Atal Hoon.

A couple of things with Laxman sir like Nazar Andaaz and now Chhaava.

I'm still discovering how to write a film, if you ask me very honestly.

You have been around for a long time and have probably seen that the writers were not given the attention and respect like the way they are given today. What's been your experience on this front?

A lot of writers feel that they are the best because it's their profession.

But a film is always a director's medium, so you have to also be a good receiver. You should know what the director wants. Once you understand that, it becomes easy for you to write a film.

Despite many writers not getting so much attention and respect, I think I was able to provide what the directors wanted from me. So I never really felt that so much.

Right now, because original content is being celebrated more and lesser remakes and uninspired films are being made, the makers are probably searching for writers more.

Earlier, DVDs were the source of inspiration. Now, we have writers.

Stree 2 writer Niren Bhatt said this is the worst time for writers in the film industry because there is a dearth of original stories. Do you agree?

More than the dearth of original stories, people should also be in search of original stories.

I mean, if the director or producer has a copyright of a Malayalam film, I will be forced to write that film because he is more interested in making that movie.

So there is a need for story takers probably.