An epic undertaking

Filmmaker Neeraj Pandey has an insatiable appetite for stories. It is what drew him to the storybooks lining the dusty library shelves of his childhood in Kolkata. Later, from a consumer of stories, he became their teller with his much-applauded debut film, A Wednesday (2008). He followed it up with Baby (2015), MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) and Aiyaary (2018). Spanning 19 years and spread across 12 countries, his latest venture is an eight-episode series on Hotstar called Special Ops, about the investigations into the 2001 Indian Parliament attack. The spy-action thriller, starring Kay Kay Menon as RAW officer Himmat Singh, has been three years in the making and was one of his most challenging projects, says Pandey.

Q/ What draws you to the stories of intelligence agents?

A/ It is the story itself. The better the story, the more the interest. When you come across an incident that needs to be developed into a great idea, why not? Many a time, what happens is that, when you are assessing a story, you come across a piece of information that can become the basis for another story. That is precisely what happened in this case. We were working on Baby in Delhi, and I came across a couple of intelligence officers who were part of the investigations into the 2001 Parliament attack. As I spoke to them, there seemed to be the potential for a great story. That incident stayed [with me].

Q/ Why did you cast Kay Kay Menon as the protagonist?

A/ Not many people know that I had worked with Kay Kay in a TV original film about 15 years ago. He also had a small role in Baby. He has a great sense of craft, and is an actor I deeply admire. Like I mentioned, it is a 20-year journey. I wanted someone who could [capture] the essence of that odyssey.

Q/ The show was supposed to release last year. Was it difficult to put it together?

A/ It was. Because of the volume, it was almost like making three films. Even I did not expect that so much of my time, effort and energy would go into this. It was an extremely challenging production. Shivam (Nair) co-directed it with me, which made things much easier, but I was working with another director for the first time, and that posed another challenge. We had to align ourselves to a common vision.

Q/ And now you are working on your first period project, Chanakya, starring Ajay Devgn.

A/ It is going to be a challenge, but everything about Chanakya is so interesting. He was a visionary in the true sense of the world. He is a figure in ancient history, but all his thoughts are as relevant [now] as they were then. His voice needs to be heard. The film is in pre-production right now. We go on the floor in October.

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