Exclusive! Director Harshvardhan Kulkarni: Badhaai Do is a spiritual sequel to Badhaai Ho

After seven years, filmmaker Harshvardhan Kulkarni returned to directing with Badhaai Do, a follow up to Amit Sharma’s slice-of-life comedy Badhaai Ho.

This film attempts to explore the concept of lavender marriage with talent powerhouses Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead. Both actors emulate queer characters who enter this marriage of convenience to avoid social stigma as seen in the trailer, which has only left the audiences intrigued to the fullest.

Ahead of the release of Badhaai Do, Kulkarni spoke at length about representation in his film, Akshat Ghildial and Suman Adhikary’s writing, and why the film is a part of the Badhaai Ho franchise.

Excerpts below…

What prompted you to return to directing after seven years with Badhaai Do?

It's not like I gave up on filmmaking or anything of that sort. I was still making ad films, and then was thinking of what to do next. A lot of things kept being offered, but it didn't feel the need to get back to making the long format, only because it wasn't exciting enough. I'll tell you... the logic behind it is any film, even for me. The first film I wrote was a long time ago, and I stayed with that film and tried making it. It took me seven to eight years to make that film. Then I realized that I could do that only because Hunterrr kept me excited for six to seven years. There was something really scary and exciting about it that I wanted to explore. I wanted to tell that story. I have realized one thing: if I ever want to do a film, it has to sustain your interest for at least two to three years, or maybe four. That's exactly what has happened again. I said yes to this concept only after so many years of saying no to several other things. I was trying to develop something that I would get bored of. But with this one, I knew that it would keep me interested. It's taken four, but because of the pandemic also, I'm still excited and interested.

Did you hear about any real-life incidents of lavender marriage before the film?

I have never heard about it. When the concept was explained to me, I was intrigued, but I said, "I don't know whether I want to..." Then there were enough insights, which were shared with me, and so many things that were told to me; I read up about it. That's where I got intrigued that it's such a big phenomenon. One of my friends, I was just talking to her. She was making a documentary, and a filmmaker from China had come down to edit her film-it was about lavender marriage. Then I said, "Hey, why is everybody talking about this? It just happened, and it's a big phenomenon everywhere. Even my writers told me there are websites in China to do this. If I haven't encountered it, then it no longer remains a lavender marriage, right? If I have to know about their identity, then obviously they're out of the closet. I think a lot of people who have come out, I wouldn't like to take names, but several over a few years back in the West, but the Indian community of Indian origin, have come out after 20 years in a marriage, 30 years in a marriage, and also 40 years in a marriage and saying that "I was queer." If the partner also knew, it was a lavender marriage. It may not necessarily mean they need to be queer. If you go back to the history of lavender marriages, it could be that the other one has some other pressures and is getting married or getting into this arrangement.

The film attempts at diverse representation has opened discussions on lavender marriages and an actor from the North East playing a pivotal role. What do you have to say about the response the film has been receiving ahead of its release?

A lot of them did because when you make a film like this, it's just a three-minute trailer, right? So not everything might be showing you the correct thing in a way that you could misread also. It could be a little wrong, whereas the film takes care of it, and you know, the perspective a lot of the time, right? You don't understand it in a trailer, but then you see the whole film and you say, "Oh, this is what it meant." It wasn't supposed to be this way. Despite all of that, which I was scared of or I was fearing, I have received appreciation from quite diverse groups, which is amazing. From hardcore who love this commercial, funny, looking good-type people to somebody who's extremely diverse, documentary hardcore, real; all of them lauding it, saying, "Hey, man, listen, this is looking exciting, and it looks very sensitively done. Nowhere did we feel the laughs were wrong, or it was on the community, it was insensitive at any point." I think it's a very heartening thing, which I was really scared of. In the beginning, maybe some people might not get it right. But I think now everyone has gotten it, so I'm very surprised and happy.

It's all that it's gotten this kind of response, even for Chum Darang. I have received so many, and it's not like we went out and started by saying that we are out on a crusade, making all kinds of representations. It's never happened like that. It's organically and that's why, if you were real and if you knew the society right now, the northeast communities living in Delhi, in Dehradun, and all the places are doing mainstream work everywhere. It was a great way of actually exploring a character from the North East, but we didn't know that there was going to be such a huge appreciation for it, which I'm very happy about. Akshat always wanted to keep this character of Rimjhim from the North East, right from the beginning. It was an idea, and I didn't have any reservations. We didn't even think twice; it was there and that was it.

Recently, filmmaker Onir tweeted and praised Badhaai Do for having Rajkummar's character a queer cop. What do you have to say about that? And why did you think of creating this character as a cop?

Going back to when we were writing it, we were thinking of a profession that was going to be even more difficult for him. It's just that such a traditional feudal setup, plus his profession itself, is also creating a large amount of drama. I mean, not drama, but it's scary right for him to be in a profession where he's going to be judged because of his orientation. It's the fear of it, that "I will not be accepted here," too, that just adds to that complication. So that's why we wanted to explore that life is not simpler for characters like Shardul, it's just too complicated.

Nowadays, people call out when the trailer reveals too much about the film. A similar thing happened with the Badhaai Do trailer, but would you say that it's just a drop in the ocean?

It's not a series to have a drop in the ocean, maybe a bucket. I mean, we are telling the plot and there are a lot of things more to see. The idea is that if you don't, then you don't know. What am I getting into? When you do promotions, a trailer is about "I want to excite everyone. I want to give you a glimpse into the world and the kind of characters that it has, plus the plot that I want to go and watch it." If I don't reveal a lot of it again then, people will say "mazaa nahi aaya." You also run the risk, so I would rather take those comments as they have not seen the film. But when they watch the film, there are a lot of complications, and it's a beautiful journey. Everything is not just the plot; a lot of it is also moments. It's not a thriller, so there's no spoiler alert! I know for a fact that yes, because a few of my friends have also told me this, obviously not in the nicer way I've explained to them. I abused them and told them that "we are not idiots".

Why is Badhaai Do a part of the Badhaai Ho franchise?

The reason can be very strong and could be articulated more clearly by Junglee Pictures, the producers. Purely because it's their film, Badhaai Ho, the first one. The only commonality between both films is the producers, the writer Akshat and the actor Sheeba Chaddha. I'm just clicking it from someplace that I read. It's a spiritual sequel. I haven't come up with this. I don't know who has But in spirit, it's an easier way to say it because Badhaai Do has a lot of things; the milieu, the world, and the kind of flavour, a lot of it is there.

Badhaai Do has Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar working with each other for the first time. What was your experience collaborating with them like? If you could go back to them and recall, what was their reaction while the film was being narrated to them?

Raj doesn't have narration, he just reads the script; he is one of those rare breeds. We narrated it to Bhumi, and I think, even by the time the interval was reached, we could see from her face that it was done; she was just going to say yes to this. That's exactly what happened. She just had a ball. She said she hasn't been so happy while the narration is on. She was really happy, excited, and enthusiastic. On the other hand, I'll tell you what the difference is between Bhumi and Raj's personalities. Bhumi is so out there with her feelings; she is very vocal about them. While Raj is a little more subdued, to start, there is a volcano on the shoot. That's where you start getting it. Oh, man, he loved the character so much. Initially, it wasn't as if he told me that he just loved them or whatever, but he loved them. That's why he said yes, but not so effusively. But as soon as he came on the set, we started working, maybe because he's also done so many films where it could have been that he loved the concept or the, then it kind of veered away. But for me, when I had both these actors because I admire them so much, I knew that it entailed a lot of things. It's tough; you've seen just the surface level of Bhumi's talent, and Raj's acting is exploited in the film. But even in that, in the end, the way he's standing in the park, where he's revealing himself... It's so delicate, actually, a lot of it, and a lot of physical humour also, which was happening, which only Raj could pull off here. I couldn't see anybody other than Raj, and Bhumi was even more complicated. I'll tell you why. She's very fiery from the outside, but from the inside, when you look inwards, she's extremely vulnerable and self-doubting, which is what a lot of people are. This is a defence mechanism to put things out there that are like, "I'm so cocksure." But if I just show that, internally, I can't show it because if I write a thing, you will get it in a novel, but when you're enacting it, how do you bring it out? That, I think, is the beauty in her, so you will see it in those pause moments where you realize her vulnerability and you get her even more. So she's just not a tough nut but has a lot of layers to her too.

It was quite a surprise to learn that the film was set for a theatrical release in the second week of February. Did an OTT release ever come across the team's minds?

We had announced February 4 earlier, and then this third wave kind of happened, that we were kind of recalibrating. When we saw that, the kind of sentiments about the people and this particular wave have not been that brutal either. We've all seen it happen to our near and dear ones, coming out of illness. It's been quicker and it's been more like the flu. Even the sentiments from governments, for example, most of the time, what happens during a wave is that the malls will be shut, the theatres will be shut, everything will be shut. This time, that has happened only in Delhi; otherwise, it's still open. So when I want to come back, I just want to see the sentiment of the people. If I release something new, are they ready to come back? This is the market study that Junglee and the distribution team have had for several weeks. They felt that it was a great time to come out, because, I mean, just shifting one more week, because that's what it feels like. By February 11, people will be back. I think we are any way back like we're taking this virus as it comes. It's becoming a part of our lives if you talk to doctors. I'm no expert. I'm not saying it with any kind of expertise, but this is going to end up becoming a thing. We are going to live with COVID. We're going to live with this, but it's going to be less brutal and fatal. We can't stop it. We also felt like there hasn't been a funny film, a film like this for the family. Internally, we have been very confident that this trailer will fire and it will generate excitement amongst the viewers. We were always sure because, again, we had done some research on this film. We showed it to a group of people, a lot of them, and then we kind of asked them, "Do you think you will go to the theatres to watch it or would you want it to come on OTT?" It was an overwhelming theatre, and they all said that it felt like a theatrical experience because they missed laughing together and celebrating together. That's a fallacy that only a big-ticket film, which is a spectacle film, makes an experience worth going to theatres for. Nobody understands that. Even laughing together is a community thing. I can laugh in the house; I'll be alone; I'll giggle. It's like that. But when I'm sitting with a crowd that is houseful and some guy laughs louder, I end up laughing louder too, and I'm just immersed in that. That's what comedies are also about, and it's very immersive and a contagious thing also. So as a community, we watch these kinds of films that everybody is just writing off.

Badhaai Do is slated to release on February 11, 2022, on the big screen.