Lavender marriage — a male-female mixed-orientation marriage, often described as a marriage of convenience to hide the sexual orientation of either or both partners — is the central concept of Badhaai Do that releases in movie theatres this Friday.
The second film in the franchise — four years ago, Badhaai Ho, a sleeper hit, explored the taboo around middle-aged pregnancy — stars Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead. The Telegraph caught up with the film’s director Harshavardhan Kulkarni — the man behind the 2015 film Hunterrr that starred Gulshan Devaiah as an unassuming sex addict — on his Friday film.
What was the genesis of Badhaai Do?
The writers Akshat Ghildiyal and Suman Adhikary had written a draft and were working with the producers (Junglee Pictures). When they came to me, I was really intrigued but I took some time to say ‘yes’ to it because I wanted to mull over the theme and live with it for a while. I realised that I would like to dig deeper and I said ‘yes’.
Post that, we went through some more stages of writing where I was also equally involved. We dug deeper and I also brought in a third-person perspective. I also took care not to be too intrusive. It was a slow, quiet journey.
What really intrigued you?
What really hooked me is the big reveal at the end, which is not something that I can talk about now. When the concept came to me, I was very intrigued because I hadn’t heard of ‘lavender marriages’ before. I read up on it quite a bit. When you watch the film, certain things will be revealed to you, and that, for me, is the voice of the film. We also got a beautiful insight into this theme from a member of the (LGBTQIA) community itself, who also acted as a consultant on the film.
Were you ever wary of reactions to the sticky topic you were working on in this film?
With every year, things are becoming even more sensitive and extreme. When we started off with this film in 2018, I don’t think it (instant and knee-jerk outrage) was so so bad. I said ‘yes’ to this film not just because of its socially relevant subject, it was more in terms of, ‘Hey, I don’t know too much about the queer community and I want to explore more through these characters’. That’s what the beautiful part of the journey of film-making is.
The subjects which I like to plunge into are the ones which I don’t know much about. I never thought about the backlash because all my energies were spent in getting into the skin of this concept. The only thing that we knew from the beginning was that we shouldn’t misrepresent in any way, and that we should be sensitive.
Just because we are not aware doesn’t mean that we can make mistakes. That’s why we had a script consultant on board. We would write everything and we had a lot of questions and we really picked his brains. He told us everything, threadbare, and we went out and spoke to several members of the queer community and took in a lot of feedback. And even within the community, there were two sides that started fighting between themselves, claiming that this is right and that is wrong. And that made me realise that even within the community, there is no specific handbook on making a film on this theme. You have to rely on your gut and say, ‘This is what I feel is right’.
One can never satisfy 100 out of 100 people. It’s not about right or wrong, it’s about the fact that the politics can never be the same. Actually, we are looking to cater to a larger audience whose views are not so extreme. The fear didn’t happen while making the film, it’s only set in as we are approaching the release date. When I keep getting questions like this is when I feel the fear more (laughs). That’s when I feel I am walking on a tightrope, eggshells, landmines.... But honestly, if I can’t take criticism, I shouldn’t be making films. And opinions will come in not only for the politics of the film, but also for its telling, its story, for its characters....
My daughter is 18+ and she’s now giving me tips about how to be ‘woke’ (laughs). Yesterday she taught me about ‘rainbow capitalism’ (a targeted inclusion of the gay community based on certain criteria). And I am like, ‘What?!’ (Laughs) But I am glad she’s teaching me.
Does the positive response to Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui recently, which had a trans woman character as its lead, give you more confidence for Badhaai Do?
At at the end of the day, a good film is a good film and a bad film is a bad film. They can’t be compared. Films on the same community doing well or not doing well is very subjective. The story has to connect and the characters have to strike a chord with the audience.
The quirky small-town film with a message wrapped in mirth has more or less always worked at the Bollywood box office, especially over the last few years. However, what was once a novel sub-genre now stands the risk of being overused. Would you agree?
If you turn anything into a formula, that dishonesty can be smelt by the audience and you are bound to fail. Our thing is not about doing a small-town film which is quirky and funny, and has a message. If I started off like that, it would have been a disaster. Again, it’s not set in a small town... Dehradun is a capital. When you watch the film, you will see that it’s a beautiful mix of urban and small town. We took care of shooting it in a way that it doesn’t feel formulaic.
You are right when you talk about the fatigue of overusing a template like this. I am fatigued myself (laughs). We have made a conscious effort of making it look different. Even in the initial screenings we have had, everyone has come out saying that it doesn’t seem like one of those formulaic, run-of-the-mill small-town comedies. In Badhaai Do, you will discover how humour can sometimes be used in a very hard-hitting way to tell a bitter truth. The messaging of the film is also not what everyone is expecting it to be. It’s something that the viewer may step out of the theatre and retain for a while. I believe that this is a film that will have long legs.
This isn’t a big-ticket, star-studded film that comes in with the guarantee of pulling audiences into theatres in the middle of what is still a serious pandemic. How much does that worry you?
Honestly, the big tentpole films are not the ones that have done well... the smaller releases have actually brought in viewers during the last few months when theatres have opened up sporadically. The big films probably didn’t do as well because they didn’t pique the audience’s interest too much. So one can’t broad-stroke things. Today, if you gave me the option of a streaming release where I didn’t have to have butterflies in the stomach on account of what the box-office collections would be, I would still opt for a theatrical release.