PremiumTejas director Sarvesh Mewara recollects Kangana’s response to his narration - ‘She had a very specific smile’
After its theatrical release in October 2023, Tejas is now out on ZEE5
With Kangana Ranaut
Last Updated: 09.11 PM, Jan 10, 2024
Tejas, Kangana Ranaut’s aviation saga, which met with an indifferent response at the box office, released on ZEE5 last week. Directed by Sarvesh Mewara and produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Tejas also featured Anshul Chauhan and Varun Mitra. Post its OTT premiere, the filmmaker takes us through his narration to Kangana and how he dealt the emotional stretches.
Sarvesh shares that whenever he writes scripts and narrates them to people, he’s quite curious about the kind of reactions. “After dedicating 6 or 8 months to writing these scripts, when you finally narrate them to a team of 8 or 10 people and witness how they react to your screenplay, it becomes an important and emotional moment.”
While he earned an instant nod from producer Ronnie Screwvala and team, he still remembers how Kangana reacted to the script. “I recall that the narration happined in Hyderabad while she was shooting for a movie. She immediately asked me the time when would I want to start the film and I responded, ‘Whenever you give us the dates.’”
The director says Kangana had a very specific smile, which he will always remember. “It was almost an instant 'yes' from her side. That was a pivotal and emotional moment for me—to have an actor instantly agree, or when producers, upon hearing the script, express their liking. These are crucial moments, especially during the pitching phase.”
His approach to the script was simple. “You know, whatever I write, it has to be emotional and dramatic, yet slightly more on the realistic side. So that's why we got very clear from the word go that we will stay true to the entire Indian Air Force world. Hence, we enlisted the expertise of an IAF consultant, Abhijit Gokhale, who eventually became a friend.”
Abhijit and the team sat together and collaborated on the changes he proposed. “This process aimed to refine the content, ensuring that the dialogues and expressions within the cockpit truly reflected authentic call signs and terminology. So, the approach was very dramatic because, at the end of the day, it is a film and not a documentary, yet it stays slightly true to the IAF world.”
He was particular about giving actors adequate freedom with the performances. “I always believe that once the script is ready, you have to listen to everybody out there. Though it's my vision, if anybody can add an extra edge to that vision, it always helps. Hence, I got a lot from even the technicians, the cameraman, the production designers, the sound recorders, and composer Shashwat Sachdeva.”