'Darlings' director Jasmeet Reen on SRK, Alia and making a black comedy

Bollywood has been on the backfoot for some time now, with big-budget films flopping at the box-office. Reams have been written analysing the fall of the mighty Bollywood and the rise of South cinema. One key reason often trotted out is that the Hindi film industry is on a meandering path of mediocrity with no new creative ideas.

Jasmeet Reen, director of Alia Bhatt’s Darlings, which is trending on Netflix and on social media, however disagrees. Refuting the claim that Bollywood has completely lost the plot, in an exclusive interview with The Federal, she says, “Every film industry goes through a phase, and sometimes some films work, others don’t.”

But, we’ve had Gangubhai Kathiawadi, she quips, adding that now, “everyone has accepted that Darlings is also getting so much love”. Also, it is now official: Darlings will have a Telugu and Tamil remake, which the director/co-writer is thrilled about. “Obviously, Bollywood has ideas,” she defends, brushing off odious comparisons between Bollywood and the South.

“I don’t know who is making this comparison. They are all Indian films, whether it is a good Tamil, Punjabi or a Hindi film. Somehow, post-pandemic, people have become so harsh. Audiences have to stop getting into the dynamics of whether a film is a hit or not. All the audience has to do is to like or dislike a film. Whether a film is a hit or flop, how much money is invested in it frankly is the producer’s concern. The pressure is on them,” says debut director Reen, choosing her words carefully.

Working with SRK and Alia 

For any first-time director, it is nothing short of a life-altering moment or a “miracle”, if Shah Rukh Khan’s “powerhouse” production house Red Chillies Entertainment and Alia Bhatt love your script and want to produce the film. Reen, who had written another film, a biopic on Sahir Ludhianvi, Gustakhiyan, which never materialised, worked on another idea she had and came up with the Darlings script.

When she first took her script, written along with Parveez Sheikh, to SRK, he loved it. And, he promptly, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, came up with this wry phrase: “Auratein ka upman karna, aapke liye hanikarak ho saktha hain (insulting women can end up being harmful for you).”

“That line actually became our marketing campaign and he came up with it in the first narration. Hmm, isn’t that amazing. I put it in the script as well,” happily shares Reen.

Also read: From ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ to ‘Darlings’, films on domestic violence take a new path

Calling Bollywood’s leading actor Alia Bhatt a natural actor, she says, “She is 100 per cent in the moment. If she is playing Badrunissa (a young Muslim housewife living in a Byculla chawl in Mumbai) in Darlings, she is Badru from 6 am till packup. After that she may switch off but for the 40 days we shot, she is with you in character. She is very professional, and gets the nuances right, which gives layers to the character. This is a comedy and also something tragic is happening to her, and to shift from one to another is not easy.”

Challenges of a debut director

Helming a film with famous stars and seasoned actors may be daunting for a first-time director? It was not tough, admits Reen, having done extensive homework on her characters. 

Darlings is about a mother-daughter pair (essayed by Shefali Shah and Alia), who, in Reen’s words are “whacko” and  “a bit strange”, and are trying to figure out ways to get the daughter’s marriage on track since she is married to a wife-beater.  They all live next to each other, cheek by jowl in the Byculla chawl.

“I had prepped each one of my actors separately. In my script, I had written so much about the characters, their backstory, their arc and motivations. I had spent three to four months in Byculla and I met a lot of people there and had a lot of real life experiences that I shared with my actors,” she reminisces.

Reen even sent Vijay Verma (who plays Alia’s husband, a railway ticket collector) to Byculla to spend an evening with a group of boys in the locality and organised a “biryani” meet for Shefali with a couple of women from the area because the Delhi Crime actor wanted to “hear” what her character sounds like.

She fed Alia a lot of information about her character as well. Clearly an Alia fan, Reen relates: “Alia is like a sponge, keeps absorbing what you tell her. And you don’t know where it is going till you take the first shot, and then you realise, she’s heard it all. She gives it her all and it explodes in front of the camera.  Then I realise she remembers what I said to her at a reading six months ago.”

Also read: Very few women in film sets, boardrooms of Indian movie industry: Report

Fun on the sets

Reen seems to have shared a close bond with Alia and Shefali Shah as well. “We had to keep doing retakes because the two would start laughing while shooting certain scenes, especially in the second half, which had some funny moments,” she says.

Also, she talks of how they would forget to untie Varma, who was trussed up in a chair because everybody would walk off after the scene was shot. One person was then assigned to just untie him. The crew shot for 42 days during the pandemic, and it was a “tight” schedule in which they had to shoot pages and pages of the script in one day.

The talented Shefali Shah too has received a lot of accolades for her role in the film. Reen says Shefali is a “fab actor” and thankfully for her, had grabbed the role. “She’s not done comedy before, and she’s completely mad in real life. I say this with full respect and with love, she has no filter in real life. So, she loved the Shamsu character since she speaks her mind in real life too,” she recounts.

On making a black comedy

Black comedies, which delve into taboo or serious subjects in a satirical manner, are a genre the Darlings director loves. Reen is a black comedy buff and loved the award-winning Korean film Parasite and Taika Waititi’s satire Jojo Rabbit. It is a great genre and if the comedy jells, it becomes a great experience. Yes, a lot more directors are doing films in this genre. I liked Sriram Raghavan’s Andhadhun as well, it was done well.

Her story for Darlings, about a “strange, little-off” mother-daughter duo, lent itself to the genre, she feels. “The story of Darlings lends itself to the black comedy genre because the mother comes up with wacky ideas to change and get rid of the husband. I knew it had to be a black comedy,” she says. 

She also explains how she ironed out the dichotomy of placing a domestic violence victim in a comic situation. Points out Reen, “The characters find themselves in incongruous situations but they are really scared. They are stuck in bad situations and having to deal with it…the situation may be funny but nowhere are you laughing at this sensitive issue  of domestic violence.”

Also read: ‘Boycott Darlings’ trends as Alia Bhatt slammed for ‘mocking violence against men’

Issue of domestic violence 

On why she chose to tackle the issue of domestic violence, Reen says, “Growing up, everyone has seen something like that around them. Writers put in what they have witnessed and experienced in their writing. It is fictional and not a true story, but once I had this idea, I spoke to a lot of different women across social strata and realised it is so common. I also wanted to understand why wives continue to stay in bad marriages and don’t leave their abusive husbands,” she says.

In the film, Badru’s hopes of changing her abusive husband are dashed to the ground. She toys with revenge, and even gets a weapon in her hands to give her husband a taste of his own medicine. But, she soon realises the folly of revenge and decides she just wants her respect back.

“That is probably the message in my film,” admits Reen. “He had disrespected her all her life and she just wants her respect back. But, she also eventually realises the respect is hers, and he doesn’t need to give it back to her. Really, what I am saying is that you try very hard to fix a relationship, but if you know it is not fixable, there is an option to walk out. There is a way out, that is what I am saying. There are people who will help you to walk out, your mum, friends, family or you find a way to be independent,” she says.

Women in the Hindi film industry

Reen, who has worked as a screenwriter and dialogue in other Hindi films before she directed Darlings, feels the situation is much better for women in the film industry than it used to be. “I have not had any bad experiences. I feel it is changing for the better. There were so many women on our sets, you don’t even think about the gender when you hire ADs or any other crew member. I hire people entirely on merit. None of us are thinking of gender; I will not hire someone just because they are a man or a woman. 

“Having said that, I believe we need more women in the film industry,” she says, adding that a lot more women need to come out and tell stories, and not just stories about women. There are not enough women directors out there, she admits.

Darlings on OTT

Darlings skipped the theatrical route and was directly released on OTT. Reen says, “I think it is great your film is releasing in 190 countries in one day. People all over the world have access to your film. I believe, if it is a good film, whether it is theatrical or OTT, it will find you. That is the power of the film that connects with you. Right now everyone is watching Darlings, and I am happy as a storyteller that’s what you want.”