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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