After a successful run at the movies, both as producer and director, Nikkhil Advani makes his digital debut with Hasmukh. The Netflix show — a dark comedy that drops on April 17 — has comedian-actor Vir Das playing a stand-up comic who ‘needs’ to commit a murder before he walks on to the stage for every act. The Telegraph chatted with Nikkhil, the man behind films like Kal Ho Naa Ho and Batla House, on Hasmukh and what the entertainment industry needs to be prepared for in a post-pandemic world.

What was the genesis of Hasmukh?

When Vir (Das) came to me with the idea, I told him, ‘Let’s make it darker, a little more crazy’. It’s taken a good two-and-a-half to three years getting it ready. I think it’s been worth it because people who have watched the trailer are saying that the show is looking good... it looks dark, it looks funny and one has never seen Vir in this kind of an avatar before.

What took so long?

The writing took one-and-a-half years, ya. There was a time when I subscribed to the idea of finishing off the writing as soon as possible. But the advent of streaming platforms has ensured that a lot more focus is on the writing now. These platforms say, ‘Get the writing correct, then everything else will fall into place’. In films — and this used to happen much more earlier — writers would want to finish a project as quickly as possible because the more projects they worked on, the more money they would make. But the Netflixs and Amazons of the world have started paying writers so well that now they are in a position to give a lot of time to one project and focus fully on it.

So we took quite some time to write Hasmukh, which was an interesting process in itself. There was a lot of ideating, writing and rejecting. ‘No, no, no... he needs to be very dark’ to ‘No, no, no... he needs to have a moral compass’. So all of that took some time.

Vir Das in Hasmukh, streaming on Netflix from April 17 Sourced by The Telegraph

What worked for you when Vir came to you with the idea?

Vir and I have always wanted to work together. I have seen almost all his stand-up acts. I think he has a great connect with a certain kind of audience, the same audience that’s watching the streaming platforms right now. He came to me with the one line of, ‘I want to play a stand-up comedian who is also a murderer’. And my question to him was, ‘But why is he murdering?’ We came up with a few ideas and I was like, ‘What if we explore the fact that if he doesn’t murder, he can’t perform on stage?’ (Laughs)

Every performer, every sportsperson has some quirk or ritual that they perform before they go up on stage... like Sachin (Tendulkar) wears his left pad before his right pad. I told Vir, ‘For your character, killing is his Viagra’ (laughs). To get his mojo going, he needs to kill before he goes up on stage. We then had to figure out how he kills and who he kills... and all of that made the story even more interesting. Vir has about five stand-up performances on the show that are given a whole new colour and tenor by those murders... the writing of all that is the biggest victory of the show. The performances are not just stand-up... they are, in a way, connected to the murders.

You’ve kind of thrown yourself, no holds barred, into this new medium of content. One hears that your production house Emmay Entertainment is producing a lot more shows for many streaming platforms after Hasmukh...

We are doing nine shows! (Laughs) Besides this, we have another show with Netflix, three with Amazon Prime (Video) which are in the developing stages, two with Hotstar, one with Sony (Liv).... When the lockdown happened, we had four shows in production. I don’t think we can do more (laughs). In the last 20 days, my content team has approved another five (shows)... I’ve told them, ‘Hold on, hold on! We need to hold our horses’ (laughs).

How are you looking at the entertainment industry recovering and carrying forward post the Covid-19 pandemic?

I think all formulae have to be revisited and all rules have to be bent... whether it’s budgets, how we are going to go about shooting.... The viewing audience, I feel, will dramatically change. Who’s going to have money to go to the theatres? For sometime, at least. So what happens to the smaller and mid-sized films? Will they continue being made or will it only be the big-budget films? What happens to the smaller actors if we only make films with the big actors and superstars? Will they have to be compelled to move to the streaming platforms? So, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

Is there the apprehension that streaming platforms will be the first preference for entertainment, as opposed to movie theatres, once things get back to normal?

That’s a big fear. I don’t think cinema halls will be allowed to open up in a hurry. I don’t think the government is going to take the risk of opening any place where there is the possibility of more than 10 people congregating... for sometime, at least. So that means that the industry as a whole has to revalue, reasses and rethink. The viewing patterns of audiences will change, and we need to be ready for it. Anybody who thinks that one can start from where one left off is being myopic and silly.

Everything will change. People will need to wear masks everywhere, possibly in movie halls too for a long time. It will be mandatory to hold limited screenings and sell lesser number of seats, I feel. The way we are checked, post terrorist attacks, in five-star hotels and malls... maybe our body temperatures will now be checked before one enters a mall or a movie hall. People would complain about invasion of privacy because of Aadhaar card... I feel, post this, our biometrics will be checked everywhere. It’s all very dystopian when you think about it... Philip K. Dick (science-fiction writer) was right about it 30 years ago.

To end on a lighter note, any recommendations on what one should watch during this period of lockdown?

I actually haven’t watched much in the last 20 days. I only caught up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine because that’s one of my favourite shows. I strictly keep off news channels because I can’t really take this Covid-19 drama any more. But I am reading, writing... we are developing a lot of stuff, so I am getting everything ready. I want to catch up on a few shows like She and Taj Mahal 1989 (both streaming on Netflix).