The intriguingly named Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo is the brainchild of director Homi Adajania — credited with films like Being Cyrus, Cocktail and Finding Fanny. Set to stream on Disney+Hotstar from May 5, the wacky premise (it’s Homi, after all) has a family of women — led by Dimple Kapadia’s matriarch — running a successful drug racket with a cottage industry as the front.

The quirky trailer is already a hit and with a cast comprising the likes of Deepak Dobriyal, Radhika Madan, Isha Talwar, Naseerudin Shah, Monica Dogra, Angira Dhar, Ashish Verma, Varun Mitra and Udit Arora, Homi seems to have a winner already. We chatted with the man to know more.

What came first — the story or the idea of turning the saas-bahu concept on its head?

The story. I was not familiar with the saas-bahu concept except for knowing that it was quite popular when I was younger. I was quite intrigued with the idea of these feisty women who are, on the surface, running a household... but there is much, much more to it. What these women actually do (run a drug cartel) is something that even the men of the family don’t know. In fact, these men are quite judgmental of the ‘mundane’, ‘boring’ lives that they feel these women lead (laughs)!

The idea came to me a very long time ago and then it gradually grew and became its own animal. But it was never about flipping the saas-bahu thing on its head because I was not familiar with that. I am someone who has grown up without any kind of gender bias or seen any kind of gender inequality within my family or among my friends. I was quite naive about it till I went to college and then realised: ‘Oh my God, this is a very unequal world!’ And that pissed the shit out of me!

When this story came to me, it was very organic that the women in it would be ruling the roost. And then I wanted to make it tongue-in-cheek... that even within the family, no one knows what’s going on (laughs)!

They live in this fictitious place which is the badlands, far removed from urban society. It’s a lawless place where they create their own laws. There is a backstory to Dimple’s (Kapadia) character and she went through something terrible, but instead of curling up and dying, she rose like a phoenix and then decided that if the world wasn’t ready to back her, she would create a sort of oasis in her own system where anyone who is marginalised would find a place. She brings in women who start working for her and they start a cottage industry, but that’s just a front.

I was travelling through the interiors of India and I was appalled to see whole villages comprising widows who are castigated from the main society. My story imagined these kind of women getting together and starting a business which involves making this drug called ‘Flamingo’. They are untouchables, so to speak, but their distribution network is entrenched in our urban cities and even abroad. There is even a scene where Savitri (Dimple) is also at Paris Fashion Week... it’s quite mad!

It is mad. I wouldn’t have thought of anyone else but you making this!

I showed some parts of it to my mother and she was like: ‘But darling, does it have to be so gory?!’ (Laughs) I was like: ‘Come on now, it’s fictitious... we are making movies.

I thought of this in 2015 or 2016, but back then, it was just a threepage story. In fact, I had some pretty bizarre scenes which didn’t make it to the final show. Like one where the men decide to put their funds together and send the women of the family (played by Dimple, Radhika Madan, Isha Talwar and Angira Dhar) to Disneyland. The men call them on FaceTime and they show they are enjoying themselves in Disneyland. Cut to the call ending and the backdrop is folded away by the two bahus and you realise that Savitri is sitting in the middle of a cartel in Afghanistan and brokering a huge opium deal! It is a scene which should have made it, but I assure you that the show has even better scenes!

Dimple Kapadia (centre) flanked by Isha Talwar, Angira Dhar and Radhika Madan in Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo, streaming on Disney+Hotstar this Friday

What took you so long to get down to making it? Did you wait for creatively conducive times like this to make such a quirky, dark comedy?

Angrezi Medium (2020) came up in the meantime, though Disney+Hotstar had already greenlit my script. We were sure that we would make it as a web series because it was too convoluted and there were too many cliffhangers which couldn’t have fitted into a feature film... it really is a rollercoaster from hell! (Laughs) I had decided that the first web series I make would definitely be this.

Then two years of Covid happened and it didn’t get off the ground. And then, one day, my producer (Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films) called up and said: ‘Okay, Covid is over now!’ At that time, I was living in Alibaug and had pretty much become a farmer (smiles). I was digging wells for rainwater harvesting and growing vegetables and reading. And Dinoo was like: ‘Enough, get your head out now from under that rock and make the series. We have already committed to it!’ (Laughs)

Would you rather be farming or making films or are you equally passionate about both?

Equally passionate, without a doubt! I have had one of the best experiences of my life making Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo. Everyone knows me as a mad Parsi and I guess they thought I got madder because during a table reading before shoot started, I told them: ‘This is the first time I am going to have 240 people in a closed group in a controlled environment and I want to do a social experiment. We will be shooting this together in the middle of nowhere, so let’s create this utopian world — while we show a dystopian world to the audience — where I want everyone to say I love you to each other every day.’ I think that’s when they thought that I had gone completely mad! (Laughs)

But a week later, we were actually doing that and it was so beautiful. Everyone was going through the grind but helping each other with such solid, beautiful energy. All of us were miserable when we had to wrap.

I do a lot of my projects for the experience they bring in, and that’s what drives me. Like I did Angrezi Medium because Irrfan and I were quite clear that this would be his last journey and we said: ‘Let’s screw everything else... we are going to walk this together and have the best time ever!’ So it’s the experience that always counts. The idea is to make good memories that I can think back to when I am old and laugh about it.

Speaking of experience, what makes working with Dimple Kapadia — she has been in all your projects — so special? I believe she was not your first choice for Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo....

That was simply because initially I was thinking of a much younger family for the story. But regardless of everything, she would have still be in the show, even if she didn’t play the matriarch. We share a beautiful relationship, we are very good friends but we are extremely professional and we never blur the lines when we are working. I have the privilege of having her trust because of which she is willing to be fearless and push the envelope beyond boundaries.

Does working in the long format give you a sense of freedom?

It does. Apart from the freedom of telling the story in an expansive way, it doesn’t put the pressure of a Friday-Saturday-Sunday on me. I don’t have to force in a song or cast a popular face because of the pressure of the box office. You can be very true to your craft, and that gives me pure joy.

I have always got that impression that the pressure of the box office doesn’t really weigh you down....

Yeah, it sounds like I am whining but I have never had to experience that! (Laughs) But I know it happens. I was ultimately very proud of the album we came out with for Cocktail (2012), but initially I was like: ‘Eight songs?! Let’s make the whole movie only about songs!’ (Laughs) But I realise these things work, sometimes or even often.

Are you a big consumer of content on OTT?

No, not at all. You switch on the TV and I will fall asleep... it’s my sleeping pill. That’s why my wife (Anaita Shroff Adajania) has given up watching stuff with me. She will be like: ‘Look, look,look what happened!’ And I will say: ‘Oh sorry, I slept off after the first minute!’