The Night Manager creator Sandeep Modi: Was worried that people were going to get angry about dividing the show in two parts | Exclusive

It's been four months since the first part of The Night Manager premiered on Disney+ Hotstar. The cliffhanger after four episodes was enough to test the patience of those who weren't given any prior warning that the series had not ended. Now, after four months, the final part of the series is set to be released, much to the excitement of the fans. Sandeep Modi, the creator and co-director, refers to this gap between two parts as "sweet revenge." In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, the filmmaker spoke about directing actors from different schools of thought, Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur, and having adapted two international series, Aarya and The Night Manager.

Moreover, Sandeep gleefully shared the scenario of hosting a screening in London with the original creators of the British series and also meeting up with the lead star, Tom Hiddleston.

Edited excerpts below...

Only a week is left until The Night Manager Part 2 is out. How is it feeling to make people impatient for months after the release of the first part?

I believe this is sweet revenge, right? If you made people wait and now you have to, you can't wait for the next seven days. I would say it was an anxious time in a certain way because there was anticipation not just from the audience but also from me as a maker. I'm anxious to know what they feel about it and whether the small changes we try to make with the adaptation, the actors, and the tonal differences are what we've tried. We have really worked hard; we have been at it. It's not that for the last four months we thought it was all done and we could rest on our laurels and rejoice that people have loved it. We really realise that it's a huge responsibility for someone to like your work and that you're waiting for it. Now that the bar has been raised, you have to try to beat it, or, in the worst case, you have to just match it. So the whole team has been at it. More than anxious, I'm feeling empty because the show now ends and I can't do anything about it. We can only watch it with all of you guys when it comes out on June 30.

Actually, it was an afterthought to split the show. We were already getting there; it's ready, and somewhere the feeling came that after all these years and a saga kind of story and also the struggle with Aditya's look with this beard, we need to grow it again, go to a clean shave, and stubble; then there's Anil sir. The story spans five years, and one fine day will come and people will consume it like fast food; it will be done, and that oddly affected me. I said, "Is that the right way of watching and feeling the story?" I wasn't sure of that, and that's where the idea of saying, How do we present the show differently to the audience so that it stays with them emotionally?

The idea of splitting was a unique one. I thought, What if we do it episodically too? For me, OTT is a hybrid of film and television. Now you can either think of it like film, where you get the whole film together, or you can think of it like television, where you get a story over a period of time. We have so far been used to the idea of watching it like a film. It just drops it, and you binge on it; the control is yours. If somebody gives you all the stuff, it's rare for you to wait for weeks to finish it; you're in it or you're not. It was a natural instinct for me to say, "Okay, I'm only choosing the father's or mother's genes." Right now, we're always going towards the father or towards the mother. There's a tendency towards the idea that it's coming from television as a form. So that's the route we took. We were really anxious. I have to admit that the day the show was released, I took down the blinds in the afternoon and had no sleep for six hours because I couldn't take the tension. I was worried that people were going to get so angry about this thing that it would fall anyway. If they like the show, what if they don't like the idea of the way we're presenting it? It was only on Sunday that Aditya and Anil called me to tell me, "Why are you worried? Just allow it a few days, and people will respond in a beautiful way." And that's what happened. The idea of why there are only four episodes transformed into, Where are the rest? That was a beautiful sign. Till now, people have come up to me and said that Sandeep is the one who made The Night Manager. Whether it was a baccha or a chacha, they would catch hold of me. It tells me the amount of love the show has gotten. Eventually, whatever we tried, I would say, worked for the final objective that we wanted to show. Four months in, people are waiting; that's something.

You co-directed the series with Priyanka Ghose, just as you did with Aarya Season 1, which you, Ram Madhvani, and Sandeep Rawat directed. How do you divide the directorial duties and be on the same page?

So in Aarya, we were the co-creators, and creation has morally more to do with the choice of casting, story, screenplay, crew, and editing. So I was given the responsibility of showrunner between the two creators, Ram and me. For me, the formula could be expressed in many ways. In the West, people say, "Let's give an episode to the director." But I had a different approach there. I have used the same approach in The Night Manager too, where I am the solo creator and there are two directors, Priyanka and me. For me, what is the strength of the director, and where will a director do a better job for a particular scene? It's like saying that if a creator, like a manager of a cricket team or a coach and director, is a player, I have to decide that "Sandeep, Priyanka can do this better than you. She has better energy." Sometimes you want to take a call that Sandeep has been shooting for 10 days, but you distance yourself. Then you need Priyanka to take shots, and if she has shot for so many days, even though she is good at the scene and will be tired, I need to take over and finish it. So it's like a relay race, and I do it completely based on the strengths of the directors and what the story requires.

Having to direct two actors from different generations, like Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur, would also be a challenge in itself. How did you juggle the approaches of these two actors, who come from different schools of thought?

I have realised that, for both of them, it's not just generational but just their approach towards acting. It's like having two different chefs; both have specialties that they'll make, but the trouble is when you have both of them in the same scene. But I said that's actually not a challenge; that's a joy because we are making a show about two diverse personalities, and if you try to make them one, it might become boring. So the first thing I did was make it more difficult for myself. I did separate workshops for Anil Sir and Aditya. During pre-production, they were not allowed to meet each other. So there were two camps. I said this was like a boxing game. Anil Sir had a workshop with Sobhita Dhulipala, Saswata Chatterjee, and Ravi Behl, and that set is like a family together. They had their own tune and knew exactly everything about each other. On the other set are Aditya, Tillotama Shome, and the little girl who played Safeena, so he is now ready with his workshop. He is now trained to be your time manager. On set, these two are just left, as if like two boxers, to have a go at each other. Both don't know what preparation the other person has made. So they are on top of their game; their antennas are up. So that's what I was trying to capture in the show. How do we bring that energy, even in the silences when they're just staring at each other, the sense of anticipation that something's going to happen because they're actually the same way, they don't know what's coming towards them? That's how I tried; I don't know how successful I am, but that was the attempt.

When it comes to Aditya Roy Kapur, people say that the series can make or break his career, and it turned out to be a gamechanger for him. But as a director, what was it that you saw in him that now people are seeing?

I thought I was trying to make a David and Goliath story, an underdog story. The moment we cast Anil Sir, we knew that we needed somebody to be cast opposite him and felt like, I don't know how you will meet him. Aditya has a charm about him, and yet there is this understated essence when you meet him in his personal life. He is among the only stars that will always probably make coffee and get up at the same time you can turn on the channel; become a star that he can. That trait is what is beautiful about him. Here's a man who has two personalities; he can become a common guy and a night manager with such ease. When he has to become a crooked guy to infiltrate his world, it's natural. The tone of the character that Aditya plays is not one that speaks a lot. It's an internal character flaw; he is flawed. He's not a guy who ends up saving the girl in the first episode. So this is such a flawed character; the fact that he embraced it and weighed the pain and guilt of that character added his own colour to it. By now, I can't imagine anyone else who can play that part.

How was it working with Anil Kapoor, an actor of his stature whose character is a bad person in the larger scheme of things, but yet he is a family man? How was it directing him and giving him such a layered character?

I think Anil Sir has not played a villain, and the fact that he's the only actor of his generation who has managed to change with the times was a great attraction to me. The fact that, for him, it's a new way of looking at it; the fact that the character's centre of conscience is not aligned; but otherwise, he's great with his child, with his girlfriend, and also with Yaaron Ka Yaar. But when it comes to business, he says, "I don't care if a bullet kills the enemy or a kid." So I thought that was a unique way of looking at it. He's not a typical villain; his thought process about the world is very unique. So for me, that was quite attractive, and I think Anil sir enjoyed that.

He very early realised that he's not a villain; he's just a battle hero in a way. But his actions are going to come against the fact that even when he's charming, you can never forget the fact that he made that girl die. So these key things were interesting because sometimes when the character is so layered, the villain is only for Shaan and Lipika, but for the rest of these guys, he is a great guy with a great life. AK Sir brought a lot of his insights into the part. He wanted a relationship with BJ (Saswata) to be like an Indian friendship. We worked a lot together on that; he would send me voice notes about some lines. So I would say, "It's just a dialogue; we'll figure it out." He would reply, "What is the voice of this character?" So the way he approaches these things is remarkable. He's done everything for this show, and he is a ball of energy.

How was it meeting the original creators of the British series The Night Manager and also the leading actor, Tom Hiddleston, at the screening in London? As a filmmaker, how was your experience showing them your work?

At first, I didn't know who was going to be there for the screening. We thought the producers would invite a few friends, and they actually invited Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston. They were not available at that time. But we landed there, dropped our bags, and then reached the venue. Within two minutes, while we were talking to people, suddenly everyone's eyes went behind us, and Tom was right behind us. With Tom, there was also David Farr, the writer, out there. So that's when it started hitting that boss; this is now going to be a test. They're going to watch and realise, and they'll have expectations of how to do this from the original. So I was genuinely quite nervous, and they asked me to speak a few words before the screening started. All I could say was, "I thought this was a screening, but this looks like an ambush. I hope you guys like what we've done with it and forgive us if it's too much." We thought that they would watch one episode, but Tom had said he only wanted to come for half an hour. After the first episode, they started the second. After the second ended, everybody finally came out. Tom was gracious, and he said, "We are blown away. We never expected anything like this." He has never seen an Indian show. He said, "It was the first Indian show I'm watching, and it felt like a different life altogether. I had worked on something earlier, but now it has its own life in India; it feels like the seed plant here has been replanted in India, with a life of its own and a character of its own." He was gracious to say that Aditya did a better job than him. I said that he is too kind, as they are two different parts that you can't compare. He had to say so many things about Aditya, so I just connected to him, and they had a long video chat. What he liked is that the choice of Aditya's character has changed, but the balance is also fantastic. An hour later, he was still there. He had such a great time, and that was the best thing. I think the last few people to leave the venue were Tom and all of us. It was an incredible experience.

How do you look back at your journey from winning a National Award for a non-feature film to co-creating two of the biggest Indian shows, Aarya and The Night Manager?

I feel like Destiny's Child right now. It took a while, and the journey also had its downs. I have done years of shooting weddings, with all the ups and downs that happen. But eventually, if you really strive and really stay at it, if your intent is right, things will come your way and everything will fall into place. This is what I'm taking away. I just hope the love that the audience has been able to give continues, so that I can tell you a lot more stories from my pitara, which is full right now. I want to tell them so many of my stories and so many things that give them so many emotions. I am just getting started.

What is it about adapting international series that attracts you?

The fact that they say that there are few stories and everyone keeps moving around them The fact that here's a story, which I thought had a good run, was told well. But it is like a Shakespeare story that happens so well in India and is relevant here or in the world even now, so that becomes an interesting factor for me to choose. When The Night Manager came to me, I asked it a simple question: "Why am I making it when people are watching it? I was interested in the idea of how a common man becomes a spy. You have seen Pathaan or Tiger films; you know the genesis of the story, and you will spend enough time on it. But I was quite interested in the idea of what this single thought was. How does a regular guy become a spy? And through his whole life, he goes and takes a risk like that. That became a question, and I can ask these questions and get answers. So for me, there are stories that will hit you, make you ask these questions, and make you go on a journey. These stories call you rather than you picking them, and once in a while you get a story like this, which is a fantastic book and now also a great show. It's a war drama, and everyone's so excited and pumped about it.

The Night Manager Part 2 will be available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar on June 30, 2023.