The stakes are higher in Disney+ Hotstar’s The Night Manager Part 2, helmed by Sandeep Modi. The director of Aarya tells us how he created this unique world of arms trading with an eclectic ensemble cast and the challenges he took head on along the way.

What were your key takeaways from the response to The Night Manager Season 1?

Sandeep Modi: I think while there were many filmmaking takeaways; there were more philosophical takeaways. As a person, I have always been somebody who has been brought up with the fear of failure. The fear that if you go all in into something, what if it doesn’t work out? That’s why I used to find myself stopping short of going all in. So, I went all in with The Night Manager.

I gave it two and a half years. I had stopped doing advertising or working on anything else even through the phases when the shoot had to stop and we didn’t have the actors’ dates. Throughout all the struggles, I refused to stop believing in it. I was really worried that if the universe doesn’t give back in a kind way, I may go back to being somebody who will always be burned by the experience and never commit myself fully to one.

It changed me as a person. I am not shy of committing to something. I am not shy of giving all that I have, knowing that there are times like The Night Manager when the universe conspires and gives back to you.

What was the strategy behind keeping a gap of four months between the two parts of The Night Manager?

Sandeep Modi: We had shot the whole show as a single story and while we were editing it, I remember watching all the episodes and saying that it feels like a story that you need to savour. I didn’t like the idea that a story like this would be binged and finished in one night.

This is the journey of five years of Shaan Sengupta (Aditya Roy Kapur). He has given so much and he’s going through so much. And OTT as a medium is so crowded that I thought such an emotionally impactful story would be ‘it came, it conquered, and it went away’. I felt that it should stay longer in the conversations. It should feel like a saga in a certain way.

The conversation started with Disney+ Hotstar and somewhere they felt that the weekly episode drop may not work for a story like this. They said, ‘If you are open to it, we will be keen to think of it like a film which has a first half and a second half.’

I was extremely nervous because of the four-month gap because nobody in the country had done it. But now when I am talking to people, I am so happy to know that people are excited and emotionally invested in the story. So far, it feels like the experiment has worked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mysy-Dx2tY0

All actors have brought their A-game with Anil Kapoor leading from the front. Tell us something about working with this ensemble cast.

Sandeep Modi: I enjoy the collaborative way of filmmaking. While I have a larger vision, I am always keen to know what it is that each actor is going to bring to the table. How are they seeing the character? And as long as it suits the overall vision of the show, it works.

Anil (Kapoor) sir is one of the very few actors who have worked across multiple generations of cinema. Every time cinema has changed, he has changed and his performances have evolved. The fact that we are still interested in his way of performance is a testament that he is flowing like water. He understands what each filmmaker is looking for. He watches so much. I remember him telling me that he spends so much time with his children Harsh, Rhea and Sonam, asking them what they are watching, what they would recommend.

I remember the beautiful line he told me – ‘Sandeep, don’t worry. I am gonna be with you. I would be happy to embrace failure with you as long as we have tried something progressive rather than succeed in trying something regressive.’ He wanted us to try and that gave me a lot of confidence to push the envelope. His character is very dense and textured.

I told Aditya (Roy Kapur) ‘We are going to reduce 50 per cent of your dialogue and the onus will be on your eyes and silences to convey the thought.’ He bought it and went with it. With so little, he could convey so much. I think that is the beauty of OTT. We could graph a character across the whole season.

Sobhita Dhulipala brings her own perspective and take on Kaveri. She said that Kaveri, like her name, is like water and you know the idea of how she will always be one with water. She brought a lot of thematic thought.

I am a fan of Tillotama Shome, right from her film with Mira Nair to Sir (2018). I thought it would be beautiful to cast her in a show along with Anil Sir and Adi, and bring so many different schools of cinema together. It could be chaotic but as long as we organised the chaos, it could be beautiful.

Unlike a film, a series allows you to be indulgent with storytelling. How does it enhance the overall effect of a series?

Sandeep Modi: Well, OTT allows an opportunity. The idea is that when you read an immersive book, you are immersed in that book and you are leading a different life. But a film will always be about one plot. What is that one arc, one side of the character? When you read a book, it gives you a complete 360-degree immersive feel and you get lost in a book. And many times, a film doesn’t allow you that opportunity. So, OTT is a great platform. Some filmmakers use it so well to create a world around the protagonist and give you a small window into all the other characters. It becomes an absolutely immersive experience.

You have successfully adapted two big shows — Aarya and The Night Manager. What is most important while adapting a show to your culture and your audiences?

Sandeep Modi: The first thing is relevance. I always ask myself — is the plot relevant to the times we are in and the country we are in? The characters, their emotions and motivations will be Indianised but will the plot feel local?

Whether it’s the drug mafia under the cover of a pharma business in Aarya or the illegal world of arms trading and warmongering in The Night Manager, unfortunately, both of them are relevant in today’s times. So, the characters could be found in our country.

A rule that we follow is that we always take the plot and key ideas like a framework and build around it with our own soil and smell. We are such a beautiful country with so much dichotomy and such high emotion that you need to weave it around them. Once you can germinate the story in our land, that’s an ideal way of adaptation.