Bloody Daddy, starring Shahid Kapoor in the role of a father pulling out all the stops to rescue his kidnapped son — ala Liam Neeson’s Taken — is now streaming free on JioCinema. Just a day after its release, t2 caught up with director Ali Abbas Zafar for a chat on his high-octane action film.

It’s been a day since Bloody Daddy has released. What’s the tenor of the feedback been like so far?

I have always believed that the firstday audience is the most restless because they mostly comprise diehard fans. It’s been a day, and most of the reactions have come in from hardcore fans of Shahid Kapoor... and that, of course, has been phenomenal.

But I am also happy with most of the reviews. When you make a mainstream action film like this, these kinds of films sometimes end up not being very review-friendly, especially from reviewers who dissect a film very critically. But as a team, what we were happy about was a largely universal acknowledgement and acceptance.

Even otherwise, the film has been trending on Twitter non-stop and I am hoping that the viewership will pick up over the weekend, which is actually when people have the time to watch films.

I am glad with the kind of reception it has received so far. Bloody Daddy is a tricky film... it’s not a quintessential Bollywood film. There is no song, it’s not designed for an interval. I was reading a few reviews which said that the first half is good, but the film plateaus towards the end. But this was designed as a two-act film and not a three-act one, and it will only have one crescendo. It was never written as a first half-second half film. There have been a lot of learnings from the Bloody Daddy experience because making such a big film for OTT is also a new thing for us. When you make a film for theatres, there are a lot of things one needs to keep in mind. But it’s tough when you do a film for OTT because you don’t have an interval. I am glad that the film has got a lot of love so far and it’s good for us as filmmakers that new avenues are opening. We can make films that are different from what has been made over the last 30-40 years. Even within the mainstream format, different kinds of films can be made.

Bloody Daddy has quite a few action set pieces. Making a film for a streaming platform means that some people will invariably watch the film on their mobile phones. Does that realisation take away the joy of making these larger-than-life frames?

As a film-maker, one always dreams of making your film for the big screen. But in these changing times one has to adapt. Whatever one makes, that content has to reach the audience. I feel that we are at an advantage because Bloody Daddy is streaming on JioCinema, which has just had the IPL and its audience penetration is now huge. So I am hoping our film will reach a large number of people.

Also, what was important for us was to up the quality of the content being made for OTT. We were on a tight budget but we didn’t cut any corners when it came to filming because I wanted the film to look a certain way. A lot of the reactions that have come in since Bloody Daddy released have been: ‘Why is this film not in the theatres?’ That’s because it looks like a film that has been made for the big screen. I look at that as a compliment Bloody Daddy has been designed for OTT. It has a certain way of storytelling as well as some dialogues which, if I had taken the theatre route, would have been censored. It would then have lost its flavour. Honestly, Bloody Daddy has a very thin plot. There is nothing much in terms of its story... someone kidnaps your son, you give him a bag and bring your son back... that’s what the story is. And that’s also the reason why I picked it up... I took it on as a challenge. It’s a one-liner, done-to-death story (laughs). But for me, the idea was: ‘Can I make a two-hour film with a story like this and captivate the audience inside one building?’ In hindsight, I now realise how tricky it was to pull it off. We had to hold on to the audience’s attention and that’s why it was always shot on a moving camera and the background score is of a certain style.

Was the idea always to name it Bloody Daddy?

(Laughs) Yes, it was! ‘Bloody’ is a very strong descriptor... like we say, ‘bloody good’ or ‘bloody hell’. We juxtaposed two words that come from very diverse worlds. Bloody Daddy, in the context of our film, is both literal and sub-textual. Shahid’s ‘daddy’ is bloody and bruised, both physically and emotionally. He is not the best father... the relationship between him and his son is quite dysfunctional... and he has to prove to his son that despite his flaws and problems, he can be the best father that his son could ever have. Shahid’s Sumair has to go through that bloody, messy night to prove that.

The French filmNuit Blanche is the source material for Bloody Daddy and the film has had quite a few other remakes and adaptations. Why make it all over again, especially when the viewer of today has access to content from all over the world?

I have actually adapted the context and not really remade any film. The addition of the Covid-19 layer, amping up the action, the idea of getting Badshah for a song, to have a wedding in the backdrop... it was all ours. Any adaptation of Sleepless Night (Nuit Blanche) will have a very thin, one-line plot. When I watched it, I was amazed by how the director held the viewer’s attention for an hour and a half. What was beautiful about that film was it was not only about brawn, it was also about using one’s intelligence. And because he’s a narcotics department cop, he can use both his strength as well as his mind to get out of that situation. What I really liked is that within the first two minutes of the film, he is gashed by a knife, and so he is bleeding through the night. His ex-wife and his son are not fond of him, and he’s feeling tortured in every possible way. And then what should have been a simple handover in a hotel, gets more and more complicated as the night goes on. I found that to be very attractive for a storyteller. Also, placing Bloody Daddy in the Delhi-NCR region made it very massy. This is not a comedy film but the lines that come out of the characters’ mouths end up being funny because that’s how that entire belt is... the idea was to play on the sarcasm of the comedy rather than the comedy itself. No one is funny in the film, but the situations end up being funny.

What made you add the pandemic as a plot device?

I tried to use it in a very real way. I remember going to Chandigarh right after the pandemic and in the hotel that I stayed in, everyone was wearing masks and using sanitisers, but there was a wedding going on where you felt that Covid had never happened! Once the restrictions eased a bit, people started behaving like the pandemic had never happened, which is such fertile ground for dark humour. The hotels were full, swimming pools were full, so many weddings were happening... the hotel industry boomed. People were tired of sitting at home. I used that thought and psyche.... that people would wear masks, but then walk in and party with thousands of others in one room. Shahid is not a quintessential action hero, but in his last few films, especially Kabir Singh, he has played unlikable characters.

Did that make you want to cast him?

I felt that Sumair needed an actor with a lot of intensity and Shahid has that, especially in his eyes. Just with a blank expression, he manages to say a lot. A prime example of that is Haider and Udta Punjab. There are very few actors like Shahid who can show intensity without using a lot of physical energy. I wanted Sumair to be intense and yet not be a filmi superhero. Shahid didn’t make Sumair larger-than-life and that worked for the film.