As the Parliament Attack of 2001 refuses to fade away from public memory, writer-director-producer Neeraj Pandey, known for his thrillers set against real incidents of terror, is making his web debut with a story that spirals from the incident. Called Special Ops, it is premiering on Hotstar on March 17.
The catalyst
A poster of the series
“It was a shocking incident for the country and it is imperative that we don’t forget and draw lessons from it. When we were researching for Baby (2015), I got a tidbit of information on the Parliament Attack. Over the years, it developed into a story and kept returning to me,” says Pandey, as he opens up on the project, headlined by Kay Kay Menon. The senior actor plays an intelligence officer Himmat Singh who is in search of the mastermind behind a series of terror attacks in India in the last 19 years, starting with the Parliament Attack where five terrorists were gunned down on the spot.
The recent developments have indicated the involvement of a Jammu and Kashmir police officer in the case. Pandey says the role of Davinder Singh has emerged in the last couple of months.
“We have been working for the last two years but it is very interesting that new details are coming out. There are a lot of question marks on how it happened and why it happened. As for our story, it starts from a real backdrop and then builds into an organic fictional narrative,” he clarifies. “Himmat Singh believes that there is something that doesn’t meet the eye and that there was a sixth guy as well and follows him with remarkable tenacity,” adds Pandey.
Advertently or inadvertently, such narratives often put one religion in the dock. “I don’t think religion comes in the way of my narratives,” says Pandey, who shot to fame with A Wednesday. “Right from the first film, it is always about the offender,” he remarks. One reminds him of a staple situation that occurs in such thrillers where a guy explains the true meaning of Islam to an offender even as the writer juxtaposes a good Muslim against a bad Muslim. “See, such scenes emerge in the narrative when somebody distorts the true meaning of Islam,” counters Pandey.
It is true and it adds to layers, but we don’t get to see such black sheep on the other side of the spectrum. And even if they are, they don’t get any lesson on the true meaning of Hindusim. “I agree. It should be about black sheep on both sides and they should not be allowed to use religion as a crutch,” admits Pandey.
Sometimes, clips of his films are used to push a jingoistic agenda. “That’s terrible, but there is very little we could do once the film is out. It is used for memes and pushing agendas...but I think the audience is smart enough to distinguish between the intention of the director and the intention of people who misuse it.”
Shot in three different countries, promos suggest that the scale of the eight-part series is huge. “Let’s not see the digital medium as a smaller medium or look at it in a patronising way. We didn’t want to become content filling company judged by the number of hours of programming. It is exciting for us what we are offering is no less than what audience watch on the big screen.”
If a Neeraj Pandey thriller could be watched on a laptop, who would venture out to queue up at the box office. “There will be interesting stories that would not require more than two hours to tell. I will continue to make them for the big screen,” he justifies. Pandey, who has a novel to his credit, says writing a web series is like writing a novel. “I won’t say it is better than writing films. It is exciting and challenging. Here, like a novel, you can put the main strand on a pause, and digress a bit.”
Chasing stories
Pandey agrees it is hard to eke out information from India’s security apparatus. “Most of the information is classified but like good journalists, we keep chasing stories. Most officers don’t open up, but a few do,” he chuckles.
After Special Ops, Pandey is gearing up for a historical film on Chanakya. These days many people are looking for a modern-day Chanakya but Pandey clarifies that he is only focussing on the Chanakya who is a towering figure of our ancient history. “It was Chandraprakash Dwivediji who got the idea in my head. His knowledge and experience have come into play,” he says, referring to the director who made a popular teleseries on Chanakya for Doordarshan in 1990.
Pandey says he is not following a trend. “It has been with me for six-seven years. At that time, there was no trend and the technology to mount such an ambitious project was either not there or was very expensive.”
He promises not to look at the past from the prism of today. “It is about an important period in our history when the characters had their share of problems. Having said that Chanakya was a great mind and you find him as relevant as he was then.”
On casting Ajay Devgn as Chanakya, Pandey says the actor was the first choice. “His body of work speaks for itself.” Will he make him put on weight as the popular image of Chanakya is that of a portly intellectual? “It is too early to talk about such details but I guess there is no strong visual image of Chanakya. Many aspects of his life have been poorly documented. We are trying to do as much research as possible,” he sums up.