Vinil Mathew: Sidharth Malhotra had just come out of playing a Greek God

Mid-day. com`s series-Director`s Diary, is a place where your favourite filmmakers open up about their journey like never before! Join in as their recall their highs, lows and everything in between. This month we have Vinil Mathew, of `Hasee Toh Phasee` and `Haseen Dillruba` join us.

• I’m not just the first person in my family in films but also the first person who didn’t study science in high school. I was studying to be an economist so it came as a shock to my family when I chose films. 
•  After completing film school (FTII and Munich film school) I started directing commercials for almost two decades. That became my bread and butter-I have a Mumbai based production house Breathless films, over the years we have done memorable campaigns- be it Cadbury silk or a lot of Nescafe ads and Airtel. It’s been over 500 commercials and people come to me when they require performance driven campaigns, with emotions. 
• In 2003 I worked on Star Bestsellers, a one hour film called ‘The chosen one.’ It won a lot of awards from the television industry, that’s when I realized I enjoyed the long format but advertising too left me creatively satisfied. So there was no tearing hurry but at the back of my mind I wanted to tell  a long format story.
•  Harshvardhan Kulkarni (writer of Hasee Toh Phasee) and I were friends since film school. I pitched an idea about two sisters and one guy, a project from film school and said I want to do something about relationships and Harsh came up with the idea of ‘Hasee Toh Phasee’ at that time it was called ‘Hasta la vista kaju badam pista.’ Harsh came up with the story of a couple in a relationship since seven years and then they don’t know whether they are in love or it’s just a habit. People say you have to invest time in relationships, we wanted to do something about love being crazy and not always rational. The idea of the film was Sidharth Malhotra’s character is in a relationship with Adah Sharma since seven years but it’s going no where and he ends up falling for her sister (Parineeti Chopra) in seven days.
•  We had two very diverse production houses, Phantom films and Dharma productions backing it. Sidharth had just come out of ‘Student of the Year’ where he played a Greek god and our film was about misfits, which completely changed his look as the guy next door, bumbling and not exactly an achiever. That was an interesting turnaround. Parineeti was always on our wish list because we wanted an actress who could not only bring out emotions but also have a great sense of comic timing. Parineeti’s character Meeta being a misfit was judged by everybody and then she meets somebody who accepts her for what she is, that was the basic plot. Meeta was a fictional character, not an alcoholic or drug addict that would justify her actions. At the same time we wanted to make an entertaining film, where kids would laugh and families would enjoy. So for every shot we would take three-four variations, one subtle another over the top. Parineeti shot four films in one because she would keep doing variations. 
•  We shot a scene with the entire cast in Mumbai’s Bhuleshwar market and it was a logistical nightmare, being a crowded place. We only had time for one-two takes and Parineeti’s look was supposed to be kept secret. After every shot everyone would start laughing because It was a funny scene.
  Another memorable scene was the investigation at home, a funny take on CID, it was good fun. A lot of women reached out to me to say the scene where Parineeti’s character pees in her saree really impacted them and Nikhil has a change of heart, feeling disgusted about how he could leave her alone. It was a romantic scene but not something you would see in a regular film. Another technically challenging scene was when they get stuck on a love seat mid- air.
• The film made about 40 crore and was profitable and it came in between Highway, Jai Ho and Gunday. When you are new you don’t understand release timing and that’s when I learnt about marketing as well. However, people found the film on TV and OTT and a lot of people grew up watching the film, calling it the love story of their generation. 
• For my second film ‘Haseen Dillruba’ I didn’t want to have too many actors because it becomes tedious. I also hate night shoots so I converted a lot of them to day scenes. Taapsee Pannu is known for her strong characters, which was the requirement was. Rishu played by Vikrant Massey was meek and submissive, a guy next door. A contrasting couple, and both actors fit the bill. I’m glad the film got appreciation and looking forward to my next project now!

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