The many truths of Meghna Gulzar

In Daayra, DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan) and DCP Raman Kumar (Prithviraj Sukumaran) are placed on opposing sides of a controversial case within the same law enforcement system. Pic/By Special Arrangement

Meghna Gulzar has made a career out of walking into complicated, uncomfortable corners of reality and making visceral cinema of them - be it with her debut movie Filhaal, or her recent works like Talvar, Raazi or Chappak. With her new work Daayra, the upcoming investigative drama headlined by Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran, she finds herself once again dealing with a story rooted in real incidents and expecting strong reactions in all shapes and forms.

In her first conversation about the film, Gulzar sets the record straight on a question that has inevitably followed Daayra since its posters dropped - is it based on the 2019 Hyderabad gangrape and encounter case and subsequent police encounter? Her answer is unequivocal. "It is based on true events. It is not a fictional story. But it has been researched and taken from many cases that have happened. It's not one particular case in one particular town or city. Several incidents like this have occurred across the country and we've taken a little bit from everywhere to get a more comprehensive perspective."

Meghna Gulzar

That approach also explains one of the film's most intriguing creative decisions. Rather than locating Daayra in an identifiable Indian city, Gulzar has created an entirely fictional world for the story to unfold in. "Apart from that, and because it's not one particular incident, our entire world where Daayra unfolds is a fictional town in India. So I'm not saying it's based in Pune or Aurangabad or Nagpur or Bombay or whatever."

The film, in fact, began much earlier than its eventual production. Gulzar reveals that Junglee Pictures first brought her a 34-page story in 2020. "It grabbed me right at those pages, because it was so compelling and it was also extremely scary. And I could see where I could take the story once I got into writing with my co-writers, Yash and Sima."

Daayra may draw from incidents that have already happened, but the questions at its heart remain painfully current, particularly at a time when police brutality, encounters and questions around the use of state power continue to provoke fierce public debate. For Gulzar, the way through that minefield was not to make a film that simply takes a position on the police, but one that attempts to understand the people inside the uniform.

"Daayra is basically a line. And what me, everyone on the film, and the story itself tries to explore is there is no right or wrong. It depends on where we are standing, on which side of the line. That defines what our perspective is, right? And so that is actually the fulcrum of what Daayra is about. For me, I think the main thing was showing the human being as well as the police officer. Why does that person make the choices that they make? We decide right or wrong later."

It is a balancing act Gulzar is particularly conscious of because of the responsibility that comes with making films based on real events. She has been exploring institutions; people and events rooted in reality since Talvar, and says the responsibility begins even before the camera rolls. "I've been doing that since Raazi. So you know that there is a tremendous responsibility that comes your way. Even if there is no uniform, the fact that it is based on true incidents already weighs you down with a sense of responsibility that you cannot be frivolous with it."

The film has an unexpected cast - Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran, who were not simply cast for their star value; Gulzar had very specific reasons for wanting each of them.
With Kareena, it was almost a case of perfect timing. Gulzar was looking for someone who could break away from the familiar image of a female police officer in Hindi cinema. "With Kareena, I think it was a moment of serendipity because I was looking at somebody to play this police officer and yet break the mould of the kind of female police officers we have seen in our film industry. I messaged her and she was like, ‘I was also going to message you that I want to work with you'. That timing was that synchronised."

Prithviraj, meanwhile, was important for an entirely different reason. Gulzar wanted the casting to be geographically and culturally neutral, in keeping with the fictional setting of the film. "With Prithvi, what happened was that I knew that I wanted an actor who was not from the Hindi film industry. Because, like I said, this is a film that can happen anywhere in our country. So I don't want it to be a film about a case that happened in North India or a case that happened in South India."

She had barely begun the conversation with him when he agreed. "I just told him the story in like 45 minutes and he was like, ‘I'm doing it'. I don't know how, because I have three films back to back. But I will make time, I will do this'."

For Gulzar, that early conviction from her actors became a responsibility of its own. "When you start off, when your first step is with so much conviction, and you know that you have that faith of your actors in you, it becomes your armour. And it also then becomes a big responsibility that you cannot let their belief down. You have to redeem their faith. What I did was that I made Prithvi and Kareena like the yin and yang of the film. So, where Prithvi has this inherent seething scowl, Kareena is doing everything and dismantling people and situations with a smile."

For a filmmaker whose films have often been discussed in terms of their box-office prospects, Daayra also arrives at a time when mainstream Hindi cinema is wrestling with what kind of stories can command a theatrical audience. Raazi made over R150 crore at the box office. Gulzar, however, refuses to accept that making a film like this is uniquely difficult simply because the theatrical landscape has changed. "It's hard to make any film. Whether its budget is Rs 20 crore or its budget is Rs 200 crore. It's never easy to make a film. The challenges may be different from film to film, but a film is never easy just because it has a big budget. That comes with its own problems."

She points out that filmmakers have always faced changing commercial realities. "You want it to be successful because it is somebody's money that has gone into it. Nobody sets out to make a failure of a film. Everybody wants their film to be successful. Every film has a challenge, no matter what the budget of the film is."

And perhaps that is also why she is unwilling to tell an audience what it should take away from Daayra. Asked what she hopes the film achieves once it reaches theatres, Gulzar declines to prescribe a response. "I never did that on Talvar also, I never did that on Chhapaak also. If you don't have an opinion on my film, I have failed as a director because it has not touched you. It has not affected you. The worst thing can be indifference. I would rather that you are opinionated about it, whether that opinion is a positive opinion or a negative opinion. At least you are not indifferent to what we created."