Dangal to Chhichhore, Gunjan Saxena to Panga to now Mr & Mrs Mahi, Nikhil Mehrotra’s pen has produced some of the most inspirational and heartwarming stories in Bollywood in recent times. Basking in the positive reviews and decent box-office performance of Mr & Mrs Mahi — a story about a young married couple where the husband (played by Rajkummar Rao) coaches his wife (Janhvi Kapoor) to a spot in the national cricket squad — the writer spoke to t2.

Mr & Mrs Mahi has proven to be a decent box-office earner. You must be elated...

It is a relief and I am very happy that it is doing well for the kind of film it is and in the kind of market that we are in right now. Things are very uncertain and the so-called formula films have gone for a toss.

I am glad for all of us that Mr & Mrs Mahi has worked with audiences. Any film that does decent business is somewhere paving the way for other content-based films to come in.

What is the best compliment you have received for your work in the film?

The best feedback is the one that comes from strangers. It could be via a Facebook post that may not even be addressed to me. That’s what has been happening to me for almost every film of mine. When Dangal came out, a stranger had written a very sweet message about how the film had affected their thought process in a positive way. The same thing happened with Chhichhore and Gunjan Saxena.

I like it when my writing connects with the audience and touches them in a holistic way. I went to watch a few shows of Mr & Mrs Mahi in the theatres. That is where you get genuine and spontaneous responses. I saw people laughing, crying and clapping during so many moments in the film which we had written hoping they would elicit those kinds of emotions.

Nikhil Mehrotra

What was the starting point of Mr & Mrs Mahi?

It started with the basic idea of a young married couple and their love for cricket forming a common bond between them. I found that to be exciting, but the real trigger for me was the madness that comes with chasing fame and success. That is where I started feeling very excited and motivated about the film because I felt that we were telling a different story.

This is definitely the story of an underdog. It has an element of comeback, of love and passion for a sport. But beyond that, Mr & Mrs Mahi is also a complex relationship story that instantly looks and feels relatable.

What was the most difficult bit to pull off in terms of the writing?

Writing the film was a bit of a tightrope walk. Mahendra (played by Rajkummar Rao, and known as Mahi) is a very real character. He is someone dealing with a lot of failure and insecurities. And yet, you can’t hate him... in fact, you don’t want to hate him. If the viewer started hating him, then our whole plot would be lost.

The challenge was to keep him real with all his faults and also make the audience sympathetic to his plight and circumstances. We wanted the audience to accept him despite his cunningness and say: ‘What can he do? He is helpless’. The film is also about forgiveness.

But when you are writing a character like this for a film, it can go either way. Thankfully, we managed to strike that balance, which was not only brought on by the writing but also because we had a brilliant actor like Rajkummar. He understood the part so well. We created it and he added to it and made it much bigger than what it was on paper.

I also liked the fact that in the quest to lend so many layers to Mahendra, we didn’t let Mahima’s (played by Janhvi Kapoor, also known as Mahi) character development suffer. Even her character was painted with the same amount of layers and detail. Janhvi has also delivered a stellar performance. It is their acting that makes the writing look so much better.

This is your second collaboration with director Sharan Sharma after his directorial debut Gunjan Saxena. What works for the partnership that the two of you share?

It is a couple of things. One is definitely the faith in content. We both genuinely believe in keeping things simple. We don’t add anything in the writing which is not needed. To keep things simple and to have faith in the material is what we both believe in. We are also very transparent and we are both strong believers in the process. More than emphasising on the end result, we believe in putting in our best every day.

Dangal, Panga, Chhichhore and now Mr & Mrs Mahi... all these films are about an underdog rising and have a sports element thrown in. Do you naturally gravitate towards such subjects?

I don’t think so. I also wrote Bawaal (starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor) last year which was very different. The films that I am writing now also don’t fall into these categories. It hasn’t happened by design for sure.

We get to see that writers are now being given their due as well as credit. How have things improved for you in this aspect?

I have been lucky. Right from my first film (Bhoothnath Returns), I have always been given due credit and I haven’t ever been shortchanged. Dharma Productions (the producers of Mr & Mrs Mahi) always include the name of the writer in the poster of a film as well as other promotional material.

The lot of writers has definitely improved from the past. Web series also have showrunners now, many of who are also the writers of the show. The scope has widened for writers and so has the recognition.

Is there a genre you are keen on trying next?

Whatever I have written so far has been in the drama space, sometimes even comedy. I would really like to try my hand at writing a spy thriller next.

Is there a recent stellar piece of writing on screen that impressed you?

I try my best to consume as much content as I can from across the country and the world. I love the film called American Fiction. I also loved The Holdovers and Anatomy of a Fall and Tar, which I had watched last year.