Raam Reddy on bringing Jugnuma with Manoj Bajpayee: 'A sense of bravery is required in Bollywood'

Manoj Bajpayee in ‘Jugnuma’. Pics/Yogen Shah, Instagram

If Raam Reddy was certain of one thing after delivering his National Award-winning comedy Thithi (2016), it was that his next would be suspense-driven. That's how the seed for his latest release, Jugnuma, was sown. The Manoj Bajpayee-starrer, which revolves around a family whose fruit orchard starts experiencing mysterious fires, also has a connection to Reddy's past.

"Since I had spent some time growing up in coffee estates in the South, I found it fascinating to explore this world," begins the director. "I wanted to explore a unique socio-political context. It was important that [the estate] was inherited. So, the family holds a sense of graciousness. At the same time, they're in a position of power over the locals," he explains.

Raam Reddy

Reddy knew that for the viewers to believe in the magic realism drama, he needed an actor who harboured a transformational quality. "Even though there are so many magical elements in Jugnuma, I take the realism aspect of it seriously. So, I was looking for an actor who could transform so much that you feel this is a real person, not a fictionalised [entity]. Manoj was that transformative actor, who could become something else totally. I was initially nervous because I had directed non-actors before this, but on set, I had clarity about what I wanted," smiles the director.

Jugnuma is presented by Guneet Monga Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap. While many in the Hindi film industry are passionate about good cinema, does he feel it's more difficult to experiment with stories in Bollywood as compared to South? Reddy assesses, "The commercial aesthetic of Bollywood makes it a bit harder because its variation and experimentation are much less than some of the other industries. A sense of bravery is required, even in the Hindi film industry."