Director Jayprad Desai on representing reality and humanising his flawed characters for the audience to relate to
Kaushal, Pannu and Massey in Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba
Moving from sports drama Kaun Pravin Tambe (2022) and spy thriller Mukhbir (2022) to a world filled with love, betrayal and murders is not easy. That’s exactly what drew director Jayprad Desai to the Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey-starrer Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba. “What attracted me was the almost recklessness of its world. It’s so forbidden that it is exciting, which is also what pulp offerings are. The film’s sheer audacity drew me to it, even though it was far removed from who I am,” he says.
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Jayprad Desai
The Netflix romantic thriller takes the story of Pannu’s Rani and Massey’s Rishu ahead, as they continue to evade the police and find a new complication in Sunny Kaushal’s Abhimanyu. As the director dived into the world penned by Kanika Dhillon, his top priority was to make each character, flawed and deceptive as they were, human. It’s ideally a love story between toxic characters. “To humanise characters in a pulp is a challenge because deep down, however colourful they may be, they are people like us. It’s the devilish side of us that they beckon. So, I was sensitive to that. I wanted to explore the humanity of these seemingly outrageous people. We were dealing with something so outrageous that the fear was that we could get carried away and make it completely unreal. I knew that if I was able to keep them grounded, I’d be able to strike a chord with the audience. They are worryingly easy to root for. And that’s the most exciting part about them. They belong to a world where everyone is flawed. We have to celebrate that unapologetically because that’s what this world represents. We aren’t defending their action. The idea is to make them human.”
This is where the writing and the lead actors’ talent came to the fore, he says. Desai states that his actors—including Kaushal, who like him, was a new entrant to the franchise—made the characters their own, lending them in myriad shades, from desire to obsession, from helplessness to deviousness. “These actors were absolutely delightful. This is the process you enjoy the most. It’s a fun jugalbandi that goes on between you and the actors. Taapsee and Vikrant have been there since the first film, but Sunny was new and something to watch out for. Both he and his character had immense potential.”
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