Film's success goes to star and failure to director, says Hansal Mehta

Mehta tells Vanita Kohli-Khandekar about what went behind the making of his second international project.

Hansal Mehta, who won critical acclaim with Aligarh, Shahid and Scam 1992, has just had his first major release since Faraaz in 2022. The Buckingham Murders, a crime thriller with Kareena Kapoor-Khan in the lead role. Mehta tells Vanita Kohli-Khandekar in a zoom interview about what went behind the making of his second international project.

The Buckingham Murders is your second international project after Gandhi (in the making). How did it come about?

The script that came to me was already set in the UK. I have been wanting to shoot something outside of India, that reflects the subculture that Indians who live abroad represent, a more authentic portrayal of that. From the time Yash Chopra’s films were shot in the tulip gardens we have only seen the pretty side of international locations; we haven’t gone into their inner workings. How do people who migrate actually live? This story was given to me by Aseem (Arora, the writer) in 2018 and I really felt ‘Yes. This is a possibility. Telling a migrant experience story by using a murder mystery as its driving plot device.’

There are comparisons with Mare of Easttown. Is it fair?

That is highly reductive and lazy. The story came to me in 2018, before Mare of Easttown was ever conceived. I signed it in 2019. We saw Mare in 2021 and knew there would be comparisons, which is fine. But saying that this is a remake is a sign of sheer mediocrity on the part of those writing like this.

You are prolific – Scam1992, you helmed Scam2003, Faraaz, Scoop, Gandhi, Buckingham, there is Scam3 (the Subroto Roy saga) coming and the deal with Netflix. How do you navigate them?

I have built a system around myself that is efficient. In India, because we are so disorganised, we question people who do this on a regular basis. But overseas you see the output of directors. Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, are churning out films; even Clint Eastwood at this age. It comes from being organised, having a well-oiled machinery, realizing that there are a lot of things that need to be delegated.

You had mentioned that the quest for the mass film is destroying storytelling. Is it still true?

On streaming what I’m doing is a long form. It is liberating. I enjoy making films also but the theatrical release is getting increasingly polarised. Our analysis of success, like failure, is so reductive and so one dimensional that we don’t look at the bigger picture. Now we attribute success to the star and failure to the director.

Does the industry do it or the audience?

There are people who write about the industry, who are paid by the industry to write about them. And they are read by the public at large because they are all over social media. I have a printed price list for every post, for every article, for every feature.