Earlier in January, I caught up with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane on the sets of their upcoming web series Sacred Games 2 which streams from 15 August on Netflix. While Nawaz tried to tell me how women are reacting to his role as Ganesh Gaitonde, Vikram explained how as a showrunner he now had a more macro view on the entire series . You can either watch the video of the interview or read our chat below:
Q: Hi Vikram, hi Nawaz, welcome to The Quint. Nawaz, I would like to first ask you, your role as Gaitonde has become so popular, you’ve received so much appreciation for it, what’s the most memorable reaction or feedback that you’ve received for it, whether from the industry or friends.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui: A lot of things have happened which I cannot talk about but the kind of reaction that I get now especially from females it is a little different. I never used to get that kind of reaction earlier.
Q: This interview will go online so you don’t have to censor yourself. You can speak openly.
Nawazuddin: No, I have already got into trouble in matters like this.
Q: Okay, tell us whatever you can under the Adult certification guidelines.
Nawazuddin: I don’t know what is the limitation under the Adult certificate. I don’t know. (Looks at Vikramaditya Motwane)
Vikramaditya Motwane: He is in the XX film zone.
Nawazuddin: No, I have got a good response.
Q: You want to explain that a bit?
Nawazuddin: I got a good response, for example when I went to promote Manto, but the people were cheering for Gaitonde. I had gone to promote Manto but they still remembered Gaitonde. So it felt good, who wouldn’t feel good.
Q: Vikram, I want to ask you, you directed a track in the first season and now you are the showrunner. Could you explain for the audience what a showrunner does on a show.
Vikramaditya: So the showrunner in Netflix’s own words is what is the constant creative voice on the show, so you are the person who is taking the call on the looks and the casting, and costumes and art direction and also definitely you are working with the writers who are working on the script, you have a macro point of view of where the script is going. And again you don’t have to be involved in the writing, you can choose to be involved in the writing, that depends. Through the shooting, it’s more a slightly production oriented kind of thing, just making sure that you are staying within budget and all that kind of stuff and then on post production, again, setting the tone for the edit, setting the tone with the music. You have the overall view on the show and the objectivity on the show that sometimes the director tends to miss.
Q: So would you say that it’s a job that requires much more responsibility than that of a director?
Vikramaditya: Definitely, I mean it does require responsibility so does being a director as well. But I think it requires objectivity, that’s something as directors we always find missing. I mean having a great producer as the director is one of the things that all of love, someone who’s got your back, someone who understands the vision and those kinds of things and I think it’s the same thing that a showrunner does in a sense, you’re part producer, part writer, part director, part everything.
Q: Nawaz, like Gaitonde is a fictional character, but you also play a Thackeray or a Manto which are real life characters that you have to portray, as an actor which is more challenging because for a real life character you have certain limits, you know that this is his personality and you cannot go beyond that, whereas if it is a fictional character, you can take it anywhere. So as an actor which is more challenging?
Nawazuddin: But there is one common thing in every character, the core of the person, even if it is a fictional character. Because if you think about a fictional character that is based on reason, the same things will apply to him which apply to a real life character. So it’s not like if this is a fictional character, yes we can take it from one place to another, but the actor and the situation will also act according to a reason, he will ask himself - why I am doing like this, is it realistically reasonable or not. So it’s a fictional character but not a fantasy one. Even though a character is fictional, he has to give the impression of reality, so all the same reason apply to him as well which would apply to a real life character.
Q: Any memorable reactions to season one that you got?
Vikramaditya: There’s been lots of good, there’s been lots of great reactions to season one, and not just here. I’m most happy about the fact that I did a work trip to LA about three or four months ago and maybe did about 25 meetings and in every meeting I went to people told me how much they love Sacred Games. I just love the fact that the show has travelled, I love that fact more than anything else. What I appreciate so much is that you there’s the who thing that - this is such a good film for an “Indian” film, no one said that for Sacred Games comparing it to other shows in the world. There is no apology that for an “Indian” show it’s a very good show. They are just like it’s a good show. Period. And that’s what I love, I love that reaction. That’s been a constant reaction that I have been getting from a lot of people so it’s a world class show and I feel very proud when people say that.
Q: So you are saying both are equally...
Nawazuddin: Yes, every character has it’s own design, but the base is the same.
Q: Vikram, Sartaj Singh and Gaitonde have two different worlds and they have two different personas. In terms of structuring or creating a world around them, what kind of technical things do you keep in mind, in terms of the colours around them or the lensing or the kind framing that you are doing to them to make sure that these two separate worlds appear to the audience as they are.
Vikramaditya: Technically all we are doing is that one world is shot in anamorphic lenses and one world is shot in spherical lenses and for the untrained people, they won’t know the difference, for like technical people they will say, oh that’s anamorphic and that’s spherical. Weird enough it’s the opposite, Sartaj’s world is more the vintage look and Gaitonde’s world is the more real look and that’s a choice we made earlier on just to be able to give each of them a look. But I think more than that it’s just the key words that we’ve been using where we are saying that Gaitonde’s world is more about personality, it’s more about a character’s personality, it’s Gaitonde’s personality, he’s flamboyant and he’s loud and he’s a gangster so let’s make everything around that world be about that flamboyance and about that gangster vibe and about that personality so whether it’s the way it’s shot, whether it’s the use of music, whether it’s the colours, whether it’s anything, it comes from Gaitonde’s personality. Sartaj’s world is more about in a sense Sartaj’s personality but also about the mystery. It’s about what is going on, it’s about a sense of tension, a sense of danger, a sense of - we don’t know what’s going on in this world, so there are no broad rules that this has to be this way and that has to be that way. It’s not like this world can only be hand held and that’s only on sticks or something, nothing like that. As long as we keep those keywords in our head, that this is about “mystery” then it just stays in your head when you are working. And that applies across, that applies to edit, that applies to music, that applies to pretty much everything that we do.
Q: My last question to both of you is that, you know last year Sacred Games ran through a little bit of a controversy, and there was again talk about the government monitoring what is being produced online, censorship to online content. More recently, Netflix has signed a code for self-regulation, what is your view on censorship of online content whether it’s a web series or an original film or do you think self regulation is a much better way to tackle that problem.
Vikramaditya: I don’t understand what self regulation means quite honestly, I just feel self regulation has to come from the audience not from the makers. Yeah, makers have to understand, you need certification, you don’t need censorship and this is something we’ve been shouting about from a long long time. Let’s treat our audience with some amount of respect, let’s assume that they are responsible people so let’s just say that this is certified for, you have a board that watches it and says, okay anybody can watch this but if it’s an adult thing then let only adults watch it, but you can’t censor that for an adult to watch. I feel it’s so silly when you say that you’re above the age of 18 and you can abuse all you want with your friends and everybody else but can’t watch content that’s having abuses over there because, why? If I am doing it in my real life what’s the problem with films? And the censor board’s justification is that - oh but theatres allow kids to come inside, is nonsense yaar, that’s a policing issue, that’s not a censor board issue. So I find censorship in itself a very strange thing so I feel the regulation, yes, filmmakers have to be responsible, in the name of no censorship you can’t do stupid things. You can’t show porn, clearly you can’t do that sort of stuff. But I feel a lot of that responsibility also rests with the audience itself to be able to regulate your own content for your kids. As an adult you don’t like it, turn it off. You don’t want kids to watch it, send them out of the room. But to expect filmmakers, or to expect us to be able to be censored saying you have to work within this box, I find a bit silly. This is my personal view.
Nawazuddin: Same, of course I agree.
Q: Do you think there should be censorship on online content?
Nawazuddin: When you get an A certificate and it has adult content, then what’s the problem, they should also be able to watch it.
Q: Thank you so much and all the best for season 2.
Nawazuddin and Vikramaditya: Thank you.
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