‘Before Rajiv Gandhi’s Murder, No One Knew Suicide Bombers’

‘The
LTTE
were
the
pioneers
of
that.’

Nagesh
Kukunoor
is
no
stranger
to
reinvention.

The
indie
darling
behind
films
like

Hyderabad
Blues
and

Iqbal,
and
his
more
recent
ventures
like
the
series

City
of
Dreams,
has
given
us
a
new
series



The
Hunt:
The
Rajiv
Gandhi
Assassination
Case.

In
this
lively
interview
with

Syed
Firdaus
Ashraf/Rediff,
Kukunoor
addresses
the
perception
of
having
‘disappeared’
and
defends
his
steady
stream
of
work
over
the
past
seven
years.

“Over
27
years,
15
feature
films,
almost
seven
shows,
I’m
continuously
working.
I’ll
never
take
away
the
joy
of
writing
and
directing.
My
God,
direction
is
so
much
fun.
Acting
is
not
fun
at
all,”
he
says.

Before
watching

The
Hunt,
I
wondered
where
has
Nagesh
Kukunoor’s
magic
touch
gone.
After
watching
it,
Ifeel
it’s
still
very
much
there.

Why,
you
didn’t
like

City
of
Dreams?
Or
did
you
never
watch
it?

No.
But
I
couldn’t
help
but
wonder
where
you
went.

I
never
really
went
anywhere.

In
the
last
seven
years,
I
have
been
working
like
a
maniac.

The
only
difference
is
that
I
made
only
one
feature
film,
which
was
in
Telugu.

I
made
three
seasons
of

City
of
Dreams.

I
did

Modern
Love
Hyderabad
for
Amazon
Prime
Video.

There
was
another
series
I
almost
started
shooting
but
didn’t.

So
I
have
been
working
non-stop.

But
I
think
a
lot
of
people,
even
those
who
watched
and
liked

City
of
Dreams,
didn’t
know
it
was
me.

So
to
answer
your
question,
I
never
went
anywhere.
I’ve
been
doing
my
own
thing.

But
as
I’ve
learned
in
my
career,
there
are
some
things
which
strike
a
chord
with
the
audience.

Have
I
worked
really
hard?
Do
I
think
I’ve
done
something
very
different
from
my
usual
safety
zone?
Yes,
in

The
Hunt.

But
you
never
know
what
lands
with
an
audience.

When
you
made

Hyderabad
Blues,
it
was
for
NRI
audiences,
but
people
in
India
loved
it.

Correct.
I’m
not
even
an
NRI.

I
thought
I
would
take
it
to
‘international
audiences’.

The
Indian
Diaspora
at
that
time
watching
Indian
films
was
small
—
we’re
talking
in
1997.

So
I
thought
I’ll
take
it
to
regular
festivals.
Then
I
was
blown
away
by
the
fact
that
Indian
audiences
—
in
India,
not
the
Diaspora
outside
—
loved
it.

So
it’s
like
that.

No
film-maker
knows
what
the’ve
done
till
it
actually
finds
a
large
audience.

Before
I
watched

The
Hunt,
I
felt
I
knew
everything
about
Rajiv
Gandhi’s
assassination.
But
after
watching
it,
I
realised
I
didn’t
know
anything
about
it.
Did
you
feel
the
same
way
when
you
read
Anirudhya
Mitra’s
book
on
which
the
show
is
based?

100
percent!
That’s
precisely
why
I
wanted
to
do
it.

I
always
wanted
to
dabble
in
the
space
of
true
crime,
and
it’s
something
I
did
not
get
the
perfect
vehicle
for.

Anirudhya’s
book
literally
reads
like
that.

There
are
so
many
jaw-dropping
moments,
so
many
twists
and
turns.

As
a
regular
Joe,
who
knew
nothing
about
the
assassination
other
than
the
broad
strokes
reported
in
the
media
—
at
least
you’re
a
journalist,
you
would
have
known
a
few
more
layers
—
I
knew
nothing.

So
when
I
read
it,
I
was
like,
‘Oh
my
God,
this
could
make
for
a
terrific
show.’

The
questions
are
still
there.
Like
why
didn’t
they
get
Sivarasan
(the
LTTE
terrorist
who
masterminded
the
Rajiv
Gandhi
assassination)
on
the
same
day?
Why
was
there
a
delay
of
two
days?

One
genuinely
doesn’t
know
the
answer.

You
can
do
your
research,
go
online,
there
are
hundreds
of
theories
floating
around.

And
I
am
not
one
to
delve
into
conspiracy
theories.

What
I
made
sure
in
episode
seven
is
that
I
would
physically
take
the
audience,
the
viewer,
to
Konanakunte
(a
suburb
of
Bengaluru)
and
have
them
experience
that
frustration
for
35
minutes
—
what
the
SIT
felt,
what
Captain
Ravindran
felt.

I
wanted
you
to
feel
that
frustration.
Other
than
relating
all
the
events
that
went
down
in
those
36
hours,
there
were
no
answers.

What
I
presented
is
exactly
what
happened
the
way
it
happened.

Any
guess?
Like
they
got
to
Sivasaran
on
a
day,
which
was
Rajiv
Gandhi’s
birthday.
Was
that
deliberate?

That’s
the
way
the
events
played
out.

My
co-writers
and
I
couldn’t
believe
that
the
day,
the
dawn
on
which
it
(the
encounter)
was
conducted
was
actually
Rajiv
Gandhi’s
birthday.
That
is
like
the
mother
of
all
coincidences.

Did
you
feel
any
sympathy
for
Rajiv
Gandhi
while
directing

The
Hunt?
Or
was
it
just
a
good
story
to
tell?

I
just
wanted
to
tell
a
good
story.

It
is
as
simple
as
that,
because
the
story
is
the
investigation,
not
how
his
life
was
cut
short
so
brutally.

Yes,
it’s
unfortunate
that
he
had
to
die
so
early
—
no
one
deserves
that
—
but
I
had
already
left
India
by
1988.

I
was
working
at
my
first
job
when
I
heard
about
the
assassination.
It
didn’t
have
the
emotional
impact
that
hit
a
lot
of
Indians.
Shock,
yeah.

The
first
episode
starts
slowly.
Was
that
intentionally
for
people
who
don’t
know
about
Rajiv
Gandhi’s
assassination?

There
is
so
much
stuff,
so
many
characters
introduced.
Even
then,
people
watching
the
show
have
to
go
back
to
see,
‘Arrey,
who
is
this
character?
Where
was
this?’

There’s
so
much
stuff
going
on.

Like,
the
whole
investigation
and
how
they
crack
it.

Now,
it’s
second-hand
knowledge.
You
say
‘suicide
bomber’
and
the
whole
world
knows
what
that
means.

But
pre-1991,
no
one
knew
what
a
suicide
bomber
was.

They
had
a
couple
of
cases
where
people
drove
trucks
laden
with
explosives,
but
the
individual
suicide
bomber
carrying
a
bomb
on
himself
—
certainly
not
herself
—
that
had
never
happened.
The
LTTE
were
the
pioneers
of
that,
so
to
set
up
that
world
requires
time.

The
effects
of
that
world
are
felt
as
you
watch
the
subsequent
episodes.
But
the
setup
in
episode
one
is
a
must,
especially
for
Gen
Z,
that
has
absolutely
no
clue
about
Rajiv
Gandhi’s
assassination.

How
did
you
get
such
brilliant
actors?

The
credit
goes
to
Casting
Bay.

What
casting
directors
do
is
sift
through
hundreds
to
first
find
the
lookalikes.
Then
once
you
nail
that,
you
get
them
to
audition
and
see
if
they
can
act.

It’s
a
long,
complicated
process.

Eventually,
those
auditions
reach
me,
and
I
see
how
they
visually
match
up,
how
they
work
as
actors.

But
the
initial
mind-numbing
work
has
to
be
done
by
good
casting
directors.

As
a
director,
how
did
you
get
them
to
immerse
into
the
soul
of
those
characters?

That’s
what
I’m
paid
for.

The
story
was
so
convincing.

You
tell
them,
‘Boss,
read
this
book,
read
this
character,
you
have
to
put
this.’

When
you’re
directing
actors,
the
prep
they
do,
how
they
immerse,
is
secondary
to
me.
There
is
no
right
process
to
prepare
for
a
role.

Most
of
the
cast
read

90
Days.

They
understood
what
the
space
was,
did
their
individual
research.

What
I
did
as
a
director
is
that
I
made
sure
they
were
in
the
right
mental
and
physical
space
because
they’re
mimicking
people
who
lived.

After
that,
we
tackle
each
scene
as
it
comes,
and
I
have
to
find
the
right
line
for
them
to
toe.

That’s
the
joy
of
directing.

Two
actors
really
stood
out
for
me:
Amit
Sial,
who
played
SIT
chief
D
R
Karthikeyan,
and
Shafeeq
Mustafa,
who
played
Sivarasan.

I
was
talking
to
a
lot
of
actors,
visually
trying
to
match
them
up.

It
was
a
suggestion
by
Sameer
Nair
of
Applause
Entertainment,
who
casually
mentioned
if
I
had
thought
of
Amit
Sial.

At
that
moment,
I
was
like,
‘Oh,
I
don’t
know
Amit
Sial.’

He
said
he
was
a
terrific
actor.

So
I
quickly
did
my
research.
He’s
done

Maharani,

Jamtara,
and
a
bunch
of
stuff.

The
beauty
was
that
Amit,
with
his
body
type
and
face,
matched
Karthikeyan.

I
met
him,
got
a
sense
of
the
kind
of
person
he
was,
trusted
my
gut
and
cast
him.
And
it
was
proven
in
spades.

And
Shafeeq
Mustafa?

Shafeeq
came
from
Casting
Bay.

They
found
this
Malayali
actor,
who
visually
matched.

What
I
loved
was
his
body
type.
He’s
a
very
small
guy,
and
Sivarasan
was
also
small.

Shafeeq’s
body
language,
even
in
the
audition,
had
a
kind
of
nervous
energy.

I
thought,
‘Oh
my
God,
this
is
the
guy.’

What
about
the
actor
in
you?
Do
you
still
feel
that
urge
to
act?
Because
you
starred
in

Pataal
Lok.

That
plays
third
fiddle
to
the
writer
and
director.
It’s
not
something
I
get
excited
about.

Acting
is
a
skill
set
I
have
to
work
very
hard
at.

When
I
agreed
to
do
it,
I
was
terrified.

I
don’t
take
that
lightly.

If
an
opportunity
comes
and
I’m
not
doing
anything,
I’ll
do
it.

I
enjoy
it,
but
it’s
not
a
top
priority.

The
urge
to
act
destroyed
Vijay
Anand’s
direction.
Do
you
fear
that?

No.
The
director
in
me
is
too
strong.

Over
27
years,
15
feature
films,
almost
seven
shows,
I’m
continuously
working.

I’ll
never
take
away
the
joy
of
writing
and
directing.

My
God,
direction
is
so
much
fun.
Acting
is
not
fun
at
all.

I
was
happy
you
didn’t
play
the
SIT
chief
in

The
Hunt!

Oh,
there
is
no
way
I
would
have
done
it.

I
did
the
photoshoot
because
we
were
desperate,
getting
close
to
the
shoot.

But
the
shoot
was
so
complicated.

I
was
directing
in
two
languages.

I
know
my
limitations
as
an
actor,
I
have
no
delusions.

I’m
an
average
actor.
There
are
thousands,
maybe
lakhs,
of
good
actors
in
India.

When
you
have
the
luxury
of
a
good
actor,
why
wouldn’t
you
use
them?

Photographs
curated
by
Satish
Bodas/Rediff