After making numerous ad films, Shirsha Guha Thakurta has made her feature film directorial debut with Do Aur Do Pyaar starring Vidya Balan, Pratik Gandhi, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Ileana D’Cruz. In an exclusive conversation, Shirsha takes us through the film’s making and decodes the important scenes.
Though you have directed many ad films, were you nervous while directing your first feature film?
Shirsha Guha Thakurta: Because I am an ad filmmaker, it was another day of work for me. But was I overall nervous by the sheer size of the project? Yes, of course, because it is just 100 times larger and involves 100 more things to manage. Was it overall overwhelming? No, not really. I really enjoyed the process because there are a lot of things that are easier in the long format. For example, not having to worry about duration, not having to worry about what a client would think, all of that is not there. So, the process of shooting was rather joyous.
At what stage did you get involved in Do Aur Do Pyaar?
Shirsha Guha Thakurta: Suprotim Sengupta and Eisha Chopra were on board before I joined. They had already done a round of adapting the original screenplay. In the original film (The Lovers, 2017), the couples were a lot older. For us, there was no tangible reason for them to part ways. So, two things had to be changed — to make them a lot younger and see how they fall in love again. The writers had already made these changes before I came on board. The entire Ooty portion, where they go to a funeral and find their love again, is something they had already done.
After that, it was more to do with the people we were casting. We wrote various versions of what the ending could be because the ending of the original film and that of our film are not the same. It almost took a year and a half once I came on board before we locked the script.
How did you go about casting Vidya Balan, Pratik Gandhi, Ileana D’Cruz and Sendhil Ramamurthy?
Shirsha Guha Thakurta: Vidya was the first one to come on board. That was something that the producers had discussed and we had locked. Honestly, I don’t see who else could do what she could do. It was amazing to have somebody like her on board already. We needed somebody to match Vidya’s talent, someone who could stand tall next to her scene after scene. And that’s when we got in touch with Pratik.
But at that point, Pratik had only done Scam 1992. In fact, that was the only work of his that we had all seen. That character is very different from Ani in Do Aur Do Pyaar. I didn’t know if we were doing the right thing. We did one meeting with him and Vidya together because we wanted to see the two of them next to each other. And once we did that, we saw the immense possibilities that he comes with.
There is an inherent relatability and likeability in Pratik. He could say the worst things and make the worst mistakes (on screen) but the audience would still like him. No matter what he does and says, he will never come across as smug. To bring this quality to a character is, for me, gold. Everything else could be workable. Initially, Ani was Punjabi. But when we were locking Pratik, we changed it to Bengali because the vulnerability and all of that was more Bengali, at least to me. So, that’s how Pratik happened.
Surprisingly, Ileana agreed to do the film. Not too many actresses are willing to play ‘the other woman’ because of the sheer perception that people have about such characters. But Ileana just embraced Nora. I enjoyed working with her. She’s such a cool chick. She’s such a fantastic actor. I think she hasn’t got her due just as far as her talent is concerned.
Then we needed a very hot 40-year-old who would be willing to play ‘the other man’. We approached some actors here too, but for some reason or the other, they didn’t work out. That’s when we made a wish list of characters we loved in the past, and Sendhil came up on that list. But there were some problems. He cannot speak Hindi. The producers were gracious with that. They said, “Let him speak in English, and then we’ll see later if that bothers us or not.” We got him on board, and we changed his character to an NRI and made fun of his Hindi in the film. He could be saying things, doing wrong things, showing up in Vidya’s house. But somehow you feel for him. I felt for the character.
Did you pick up traits or mannerisms from the people that you know in your life and use them for the characters in the film?
Shirsha Guha Thakurta: During the writing process, we often asked our friends — what is the silliest thing you have done? What is the most obnoxious thing you have done? What irritates you the most about your partner? A lot of what you see in the film is drawn from our and our friends’ everyday lives. You’ve seen the film, so you will know that a lot of things are really small like ‘you forgot to switch off the lights’. You don’t speak about these small things that irritate you for a long time. And then one day, when you’re very angry, you just pour it all out. We did a lot of research among friends and ourselves, and we tried to use that as much in the film as possible.
Such as when Vidya Balan and Pratik Gandhi argue about stainless steel utensils…
Shirsha Guha Thakurta: Yeah. This is actually from my personal life. My husband is a Tamilian and he is obsessed with stainless steel. He thinks it’s the best thing to have happened to the world. The edge of the plate is raised, and you can pour dal into it as much as you want, it will not fall off the plate. Now, that for him is a huge joy. For me, it’s absolute nonsense. This is a huge fight between us. So, we have two plates and two glasses of stainless steel for him. The rest of the house doesn’t have any stainless items because I got to decide that [chuckles].
How did the scene where Pratik Gandhi and Vidya Balan finally have the long-due confrontation come to life?
Shirsha Guha Thakurta: In terms of writing, we did not want to close all the loops. But I feel from the audience’s point of view, we wanted to know what happened. Because in the original film, there’s no conversation like this. They have just shown them going apart. I felt that it was very important that we explain to people what really happened between them. Because ‘life happened’ is not a good enough reason from a film point-of-view. So, we wanted to spell it out.
Also, sometimes big things don’t need to happen for couples to fall apart. And that is also the truth of our lives nowadays, that you’re not spending time together for months without even realising it — you just fall apart; you just become different people. You are not interested in each other’s lives anymore, and that could lead to many other things. And the fact that people don't talk… even I am like that. If there is a problem, I just let it fester inside me, and then it takes a much bigger form than it actually should have because I just let it sit inside me.
What we wrote for the scene was almost double the size of what we finally kept in the film. I think some people still found it a little long. A lot of people enjoyed it too. It’s not really a fight. They are looking at their lives with a magnifying glass to see what fell apart, what went wrong because they were such a good pair together.
Kavya (Vidya Balan) just felt that the person she fell in love with was completely gone. Ani (Pratik Gandhi) started feeling that he was not being seen for who he was, and hence both of them started living parallel lives. They don’t hate each other. They still like each other. They are like roomies. And that also happens. So, these are the things that we address in the fight.
We had planned to shoot the scene in a mela. So, they drop the parents at the airport, and then in the middle of the road she gets out of the car and walks into a Diwali mela. The confrontation happens on a ferris wheel. But then literally one week before our shoot, we didn’t get permission to shoot because of Covid restrictions. This was supposed to be shot on a beach where the mela is organised during Diwali. But we weren’t getting permission because they didn’t want so many people in one place. So, we had to reimagine that scene. We rewrote that scene. We had to move it back to the house.
What are your favourite romantic comedies/dramas?
Shirsha Guha Thakurta: There is the Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013) trilogy. I think we are all heavily inspired by that. We wanted to make a conversation-heavy film. We don’t have control over what the audience is in the mood for. This film was almost made two years ago. Apparently, people have gotten a lot more impatient and things like that. But I enjoy conversations and that’s what the Before trilogy is all about. I love all of Richard Linklater’s works. I also enjoy Alexander Payne’s ability to deal with relationships. I love Sideways (2004) and The Descendents (2011). Also, Sam Mendes’s Away We Go (2009). These are the films that I have always seen and wished I had made them.
Have you decided what you want to direct next?
Shirsha Guha Thakurta: No. I’m back to advertising for the time being. I’m reading multiple scripts that have come in from here and there. I’m also looking at a lot of Bengali literature that I want to make. That’s where our sensibilities lie, right? I would really like to make something from this goldmine of literature that we have. But everything takes time, so let’s see. I am not jumping to make the next thing right away. I want to give it its time and see where it goes.
