‘I Wasted Four Years Of My Life’

‘The
maximum
struggle
that
I
have
gone
through
in
this
industry
was
to
try
to
get
a
film
made
which
had
a
female
action
star.’
‘And
that
film
never
got
made,
despite
reaching
out
to
some
of
the
biggest
actresses.’

Atul
Sabharwal
finds
acclaim
with



Berlin
—
the
spy
thriller
streaming
on
ZEE5
—
and
that,
he
says,
has
bolstered
his
confidence
as
storyteller.

It
has
not
been
an
easy
journey
for
Atul
who
started
his
career
as
screenwriter
about
two
decades
ago.

His
first
directorial

Aurangzeb
(2013),
an
action
thriller
backed
by
Yash
Raj
Films,
was
a
commercial
failure
despite
featuring
a
stacked
star
cast
(Arjun
Kapoor,
Rishi
Kapoor,
Jackie
Shroff,
Prithviraj
Sukumaran,
Swara
Bhasker
and
Rasika
Dugal).

His
second
directorial
outing
was
the
OTT
film,

Class
of
’83.

The
biggest
setback,
says
Atul,
was
a
big-budget
female-led
project
that
never
saw
the
light
of
day.

“It
was
the
stubbornness
to
make
the
first
female
action
hero
film
that
negatively
impacted
my
career,”
Atul
tells

Mayur
Sanap/Rediff.com.

For
someone
who
has
such
a
long-standing
career,
why
there
is
no
Wikipedia
page
in
your
name?

(Laughs)
Because
I
never
made
one.
My
manager
had
suggested
it
once
or
twice,
but
I
discouraged
him.

It
is
unnecessary
waste
of
time
and
energy
to
keep
maintaining
your
digital
profiles
online.
I
would
even
leave
the
only
social
media
handle
that
I
frequently
use,
which
is
Instagram.

We
are
spending
more
and
more
efforts
in
our
image
rather
than
on
ourselves
and
that
is
something
I
would
consciously
try
and
correct
for
myself.

What
inspired
you
to
write

Berlin?

There
is
no
one
inspiration.
It’s
a
confluence
of
different
thoughts,
which
find
a
central
focus
and
then
they
can
move
on
to
that
point
and
thankfully
become
something.

It
was
a
chance
meeting
with
a
deaf
reader
in
a
cafe
and
then
I
was
reading
some
Len
Deighton
and
Eric
Ambler.

I
may
have
watched
some
movies
over
the
years
and
also
desired
to
do
something
within
the
brutalist
architecture.
I
was
also
going
through
a
book
called

The
Structure:
Works
of


Mahendra
Raj
and
architecture
of
(architect)


Raj
Rewal
at
a
bookshop.

It’s
a
trigger
of
different
thoughts
which
sort
of
converge
into
time,
space
and
story.

What’s
the
thematic
representation
of
the
title
for
you?

Berlin,
as
such,
in
a
spy
fiction
has
a
massive
presence.

I
have
read
three
novels,
two
by
Len
Deighton.
One
is

Berlin
Game
and
another
is

Funeral
in
Berlin.

There’s
a
third
novel
called

Berlin
Finale.

So
Berlin
was
the
epicentre
of
the
Cold
War,
East
Germany,
West
Germany,
the
Berlin
Wall
in
between.

It’s
a
very
demarcating
line,
a
dividing
line
for
the
world.
The
fall
of
the
Berlin
Wall
changed
the
landscape
across
the
world,
not
just
in
Germany
or
in
Europe.
So
I
thought
it’s
a
very
symbolic
title.

We
were
not
the
only
ones
who
thought
of

Berlin
as
the
title.
There
was
another
script
going
around
with
Balaji
Motion
Pictures
and
we
had
to
request
them
to
give
us
the
title
because
they
were
not
making
that
film.

When
you
watch
the
film
on
ZEE5,
the
first
slate
is
a
special
thanks
to
Ekta
Kapoor.

Your
casting
choices
are
pretty
interesting,
like
how
you
cast
Arjun
Kapoor
in
a
double
role
in

Aurangzeb
or
the
way
you
re-imagined
Bobby
Deol
as
this
upright
police
office
in

Class
of
’83.What
appealed
you
about
Ishwak
Singh,
Aparshakti
Khurana
and
Rahul
Bose
for

Berlin?

Rahul
is,
of
course,
a
very
competent
actor
and
a
great
mind
to
interact
with.
He
brings
something
more
to
what
is
on
the
page.

I
had
seen
Apar’s
audition
for

Jubilee
and
Ishwak’s

Paatal
Lok.
But
they
were
also
two
individuals
who
were
willing
to
give
time
to
be
these
characters.

See,
it’s
not
easy
to
just
walk
to
a
set
and
be
a
sign
language
interpreter
or
a
deaf-mute
person.

No
matter
what
your
acting
talent
is,
you
have
to
give
that
project
that
much
of
preparation
time.

In
this
project,
it
was
not
only
about
learning
lines
or
doing
dialogue
workshops.
It
was
about
learning
sign
language,
not
just
physically
learning
it,
but
to
have
an
instinct
for
it,
because
the
syntax
is
quite
different.

All
three
of
them
have
such
a
distinct
acting
style.
What
was
the
process
to
bring
them
on
the
same
page?

I
never
try
to
bring
everybody
on
the
same
page.
Each
is
allowed
to
have
their
own
process
because
that
is
their
comfort
zone.

Unless
that
comfort
zone
needs
to
be
challenged
or
is
making
them
lazy,
it’s
a
different
story.
But
that
wasn’t
there
in
this
case.

Apar
has
a
very
different
process
from
Rahul.

My
job
as
a
director
is
to
let
them
make
the
best
of
the
process
that
they
follow
because
for
me,
they
are
here
for
this
one
project.

But
over
the
years,
they
have
created
that
process
for
themselves.

Let’s
say,
even
me,
if
I’m
working
as
a
writer
with
Vikram
(Vikramaditya
Motwane)
on

Jubilee,
as
a
director,
he
lets
me
have
my
process
as
opposed
to
telling
me
what
would
be
the
process
of
a
Varun
Grover
who
has
worked
with
him
on

Sacred
Games
or
of
Abhay
Koranne
who
has
worked
on

Bhavesh
Joshi.

Anupriya
Goenka
is
the
only
female
character
in

Berlin,
but
it’s
not
a
well-rounded
character.
The
same
can
be
said
about
your
female
protagonists
in

Aurangzeb
(Sasha
Agha
Khan)
and

Class
of
’83
(Geetika
Tyagi).
One
can
argue
that
the
women
in
your
films
are
not
meaty
as
their
male
counterparts.

Then
see
Geetika
Tyagi
in

Powder,
where
she’s
the
main
lead.
(The
2010
show
that
Sabharwal
wrote
and
directed).

I
know
you’re
coming
from
a
space
of
what
has
come
out,
but
the
maximum
struggle
that
I
have
gone
through
in
this
industry
was
to
try
to
get
a
film
made
which
had
a
female
action
star.

There
was
no
hero
in
that
film.

There
was
no
saviour
angel.

The
woman
had
to
do
all
her
action
and
save
herself.
And
that
film
never
got
made,
despite
reaching
out
to
some
of
the
biggest
actresses.

So
you
have
to
understand
what
the
market
will
fund
and
therefore,
what
will
get
made.

When
I’m
writing
for
Vikram
who
has
enough
equity,
I
can
go
a
little
further
and
write
Nilofer
(Wamiqa
Gabbi’s
character
in
Jubilee)
because
nobody
will
say
reduce
Nilofer.

But
when
I
am
doing
it,
I
know
that
I
don’t
have
that
kind
of
equity,
either
with
actors
or
with
studios.
So
my
stories
that
get
made
end
up
being
a
little
different.

But
yes,
both
Wamiqa’s
character
and
Geetika’s
character
in

Powder
came
from
me,
so
I
don’t
think
I
will
take
that
criticism
seriously.

You
mostly
write
your
own
stories.
Do
you
deviate
from
the
script
during
the
shoot?

I
don’t
self-doubt
myself
on
the
shoot,
so
I
don’t
deviate.
But
if
a
better
idea
comes
along,
I
need
to
have
enough
room
for
it.

I
think
if
you
have
invested
time
and
effort
in
creating
a
blueprint,
you
have
to
follow
it.

What
excites
you
about
the
thriller
genre?
Whose
work
do
you
admire
in
this
genre?

I
like
Sriram
Raghavan.
I
really
enjoyed

Badlapur
and

Andhadhun.

I
enjoyed

Trapped.

Then
Abhishek
Chaubey’s

Sonchiriya.

I
like
films
which
have
an
element
of
thrill
and
action.

I
read
once
that
you
always
wanted
to
be
a
director.
Tell
us
about
your
journey.

I
wanted
to
be
a
director
ever
since
I
was
12
years
old.

Nobody
from
my
family
is
in
the
movies.

As
with
any
upper
middle
class
parents,
they
hoped
their
child
would
become
an
engineer,
doctor,
chartered
accountant
or
company
secretary,
something
like
that.

So
I
got
a
certain
education.

But
then,
I
managed
to
convince
my
parents
when
I
was
in
my
early
20s
that
this
is
the
profession
I
want
to
be
in.

So
I
ended
up
here.

I
did
not
want
to
be
an
assistant
director
in
order
to
become
a
director.
When
I
first
met
Ram
Gopal
Varma,
he
said
what
do
you
want
to
be.

I
said
I
want
to
be
a
director.

He
asked
me
if
I
wanted
to
assist.

I
said,
No,
I
want
to
tell
the
story.

He
tested
me
for
three
days
and
realised
that
I
could
write.
So
he
gave
me
my
first
break
which
was

Darna
Mana
Hai
(2003).

You
made
your
directorial
debut
with
Yash
Raj
Films,
one
of
the
biggest
production
companies.
Did
the
failure
of

Aurangzeb
negatively
impact
your
career?

No,
it
didn’t.
It
was
the
stubbornness
to
make
the
first
female
action
hero
film
that
negatively
impacted
my
career.

That
was
the
script
I
was
trying
to
get
made
between
2014
and
2017,
first
at
Yash
Raj
Films
and
then
with
Ronnie
Screwvala
Pictures.
Before
I
realised,
four
years
of
my
life
had
gone
by
and
I
had
wasted
them.

The
biggest
female-led
success
film
at
that
point
was

Piku,
which
was
a
non-action
film.

The
budget
that
my
film
needed
and
everything,
those
decisions,
maybe
I
tried
to
swim
against
the
tide
prematurely.

But
in
terms
of
getting
job
offers
or
not,
that
didn’t
happen.
Everybody
in
the
industry
felt

Aurangzeb
was
a
well-made
film.

Everybody
was
sure
that
I
could
direct
actors.

There
were
no
directorial
failures
as
such,
they
were
commercial
failures.

How
do
you
look
back
at
your
evolution
as
a
film-maker?

That
depends
on
which
genre
I
have
evolved.

I
have
not
done
a
spy
film
before

Berlin.

Similarly,
there
was
no
precedence
before

Aurangzeb
of
YRF
doing
a
darker
film,
and
that
was
a
quite
a
dark
family
drama.

And
I
had
never
written
a
drama
before
that.

When
I
did

Class
Of
’83,
there
was
a
precedence
of
me
having
dealt
with
cops,
but
again,
there
was
no
period
cop
film
in
this
country,
at
least
not
in
Hindi.

Each
one
brings
its
own
challenges
and
I
think
it’s
better
not
to
be
consciously
aware
of
your
evolution
because
that
can
have
some
complacency
set
into
you.

What
does
acclaim
for

Berlin
do
for
your
conviction
and
confidence
as
a
storyteller?

It
feels
very
rewarding
and
gratifying
to
receive
accolades.

It
bolsters
your
confidence.

Whether
it
now
means
that
it
would
open
up
avenues
for
me
and
for
others
to
tell
different
kind
of
stories
or
not,
one
can
only
wait
and
watch.

But
right
now,
it
definitely
feels
good.