Exclusive: Haseen Dillruba's Vinil Mathew on OTT censorship: I don't enjoy Big Daddy watching us

Vinil Mathew also spoke about Taapsee Pannu coming onboard as the lead in Haseen Dillruba.

Vinil Mathew/Instagram

Haseen Dillruba directed by Vinil Mathew is topping the charts on Netflix. The film stars Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey and Harshvardhan Rane in the lead roles and is penned by Kanika Dhillon. The moment Haseen Dillruba dropped on Netflix, the film created an uproar on social media pages for various reasons. Now during an exclusive interaction with OTTPlay, Vinil spoke at length about coming back to direction after seven years, OTT vs theatres, censorship on digital space and more.

Excerpts...

Haseen Dillruba created an uproar on social media immediately after the release. Do you think it would have been the same had it been a theatrical release?

See, it depends, because I think we're all evolving, and we are learning as we go along. I think one of the best things about OTT releases is the sheer distribution scale. Had we done a theatrical (release) for this film, I don't know, if such a large number of people could have seen this film across the globe. We are top 10 in about 22 odd countries, like Brazil and Argentina, where they don't even speak the language and are culturally so different from us. People have loved the film there. So, I think that feedback is something just so exclusive to a platform like Netflix. So, it's different feedback, it's a different way of receiving the numbers. Over time, you will also get used to this kind of feedback.

But what has been really nice and pleasantly surprising is the fact that so many people across the world have seen this film and resonated with it. It's also a convenient way to watch a film, so the numbers are incredible, that's something purely overwhelming.

What was special about Haseen Dillruba that made you come on board as a director?

Kanika (Dhillon) is a very convincing narrator. So I think all of us who have come on board have been convinced by the way she narrated. Basically, we all respond to stories we hear. Films are a long-term engagement; you're working for almost two or three years on a project. So that's something which you have to be excited about waking up in the morning and getting into.

Films are a collective thing; you also need to get actors and a producer on board. So, there are a lot of factors that need to come in. So, a bit of fate and destiny, where it took time for me to get a film together. But also, when I heard the story, it was a very interesting, juicy material for a film. It's really a complex narrative. We are trying out different genres - there's Indian pulp being done for the first time. So, all these things were like low hanging fruit for me. I said, 'this is something I really need to get into.' It's challenging and exciting at the same time.

Primarily, it's the stories that connect for me as a director. I would look at a challenging narrative to jump on board and with Haseen Dillruba that was the case.

Taapsee Pannu recently said, "I was not the first choice for Haseen Dillruba it came to me after they exhausted all options." So, what was that one thing about her that made you zero down on her as Rani?

I met Taapsee for the first time when we cast her for the film. I think she brings a very strong presence and she's somebody who is very headstrong and who was in controlling charge. She's also a person who walks into a room and she will command that attention. Those were a lot of the qualities which even Rani as a character needed because she's not shy. She is a strong woman, she states her opinion, she has strong desires; she's very clear with all those things. So, I think in that sense Taapsee brought that personality of a strong woman. For me, it was a great strong connection and that kind of worked well for the film. Apart from that, Rani is also from Delhi so is Taapsee. Thus, a lot of her mannerisms, body language, the way she speaks and the way her intonation is, all those things added to the character really well. Once I met Taapsee, she really fit into the role, and she owned it so well that I can't even imagine anybody else who could have played Rani.

Hope we won't have to wait for another seven years for your next directorial. What are you working on next?

I really hope it's not seven years even I don't want to wait that long. I would like to take a small break after this. But there are a lot of interesting stories, people have reached out with, some stuff even I'm writing myself. So, I hope things fall in place. I hope that I'm back soon, nobody wants to set a long gap. Like I said earlier, the film is basically coming together of many people and a great story, a great bunch of actors who have liked the script and then, of course, the funding and logistics and all those things. I just hope that whole thing fits in faster for me and because I really love the process of making a feature film and the long format fiction is something I really enjoyed. This has been a great experience where a lot of ups and downs with lockdown and COVID-19, all those kinds of things. But hopefully, things will settle down and I’m hoping to be back very soon with something else.

Do you think the sudden boom in OTTs will eventually replace theatres someday?

No, I don't think that one will replace the other because both have very distinct advantages. I think the convenience of OTT is a great thing because they don't make an effort of leaving the house, getting everybody to go into a theatre and paying for tickets. That takes a lot of effort - to break out (of) the inertia and actually go and see a film. For OTT, the threshold is much lower, it's easier to kind of consume a film.

With OTT box office pressure is not there. The advantage is that you can experiment more, you don't have to please everybody, you don't have to make sure that it's an averaged-out film where people across the world like it. You can be more radical, more experimental and you can push the boundaries. So those are definite advantages of being on OTT.

At the same time, the theatrical experience is something else, I often say that it's just not the spectacle that does well in a theatre. Even for comedy films, for instance, when you're sitting with 500 people in a dark hall and even two people start giggling it's like a Mexican wave. It just builds up and everybody starts laughing. Sharing the laughter or sharing an emotion - there's something very emotional in watching the film together. The communal experience is something very rewarding. When things do settle down, people would want to step out, they would want to see a film with other people, the whole joy it's more festive, almost like a picnic.

I think we require both, something which we can consume in private or with our own family at home and there's something really wonderful to celebrate something outside. As a filmmaker both have advantages, the sheer size of the screen, visually how you can see the film, the layering of sound and the music. A theatrical experience is something just very grand, very gratifying - to be watched by so many people together. So, I think both will coexist. It's just that going ahead people will have an option of how to tell a story because each story will dictate its outlet. They might say, 'Oh, this is a story. We want to experiment, we want something different, let's go and try an OTT platform. This is somewhere we feel that needs to be watched together and it needs to be on a big screen.

I think films that do extremely well on theatrical, find another lease of life on OTT because eventually, all films do come on OTT. They complement each other anything and it's an exciting option for filmmakers. It just widens the pipeline of your distribution, and how you can present your films. So, I don't think that one will kill the other. We have a huge market, and we have a huge appetite for entertainment and to consume it in different forms.

Having said that, what's your take on censorship on OTT titles?

As a creator, I don't enjoy censorship, I think we are all responsible people and filmmakers. The idea is always to entertain responsibly, but at the same time, explore different kinds of storytelling. We don't want these acts of censorship on our heads where we're scared. Every time you think of an idea, you think of creating something and then you turn behind your back thinking whether this will pass the censor or not. That's kind of restricting your ability to keep discovering or experimenting with material. I think, as creators, we have to be left open, we need the widest possible feel to make films and that is how you will have fresh material come out. The fear of censorship just narrows down your vision and doesn't let you be free. So, personally, I'm totally against censorship. We just want to entertain, we want people to have a good time and if there is a message or social message, it's great. You needn't be there but a big daddy watching us is something which I don't personally enjoy.

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