Actor-director Vir Das claims the no-phone rule increased efficiency, speeding up filming by 1.5 times for Happy Patel. The rules on the Happy Patel set, no mobile phones, no entourage, and one common hair and make-up crew for all, come as a surprise
Vir Das (left) in ‘Happy Patel’. pics/afp, Yogen shah, instagram
With Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, actor-director Vir Das has done everything that goes against mainstream Bollywood culture. At a time when Hindi cinema is dominated by heightened spy actioners led by angry alpha men, Das arrives with a spy comedy — one where the protagonist is the punchline.
It’s not just the film’s screenplay that is counter-culture; its making also goes against the grain of the Hindi film industry, Das tells mid-day. Producers have lately raised concerns over soaring entourage costs. So, the rules on the Happy Patel set — no mobile phones, no entourage, and one common hair and make-up crew for all — come as a surprise. For Das, the maths was simple. To finish the film on a tight budget and within a short schedule, he needed to do the opposite of what the industry considers normal.
“It is a tiny film, shot in 31 days. So, it was crucial to do this. We had six action sequences and 14 original pieces of music. We also had cameos from Aamir [Khan] and Imran [Khan]. We had to keep our costs down,” Das explains, adding that he is thrilled to have set a new culture on a movie set. “The no-cell phone policy benefited us. We sped up shooting by one and a half times.”
On the crew
Vir Das believes the expert crew helped complete the film in 31 days. Colourist Sidharth Meer also worked on ‘Homebound’ (2025). Costume designer Parakriti Rajpurohit designed outfits for ‘Sacred Games’ (2018,19). Parth Pandya has previously composed music for ‘Jigra’ (2024). Himman Dhamija, of ‘Mangal Pandey: The Rising’ (2005) fame, served as the DoP on ‘Happy Patel’
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