Raj and DK’s (director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK) latest offering Farzi, which marked Shahid Kapoor’s OTT debut, has been receiving rave reviews from critics and audiences alike for its cast, story and theme. Revolving around counterfeiting in India, the thriller stars Shahid, Vijay Sethupathi, Kay Kay Menon, Bhuvan Arora, Rashii Khanna and Zakir Hussain among others.
The series also became a craze among netizens as it officially established Raj and DK’s spy universe by having a crossover with The Family Man (Raj and DK’s series with Manoj Bajpayee). However, in an exclusive conversation with News18, the writers of the show Sita Menon and Suman Kumar revealed that creating the multiverse was not a pre-planned plot but happened by chance.
During the interview, they also addressed the comparisons of Farzi with the famous American show, Breaking Bad.
Excerpts:
Are you overwhelmed with the response the series has been receiving?
Suman: The love that we have been receiving is definitely overwhelming in a positive way. But you know how it is right? People are already asking us about season two. Our baby is out now and we got lots and lots of love. But our sights are already set on the next thing. We are looking at more seasons.
The series also saw Shahid Kapoor in a comic role after a long time. Was he the obvious choice?
Sita: This concept started off as a feature film long ago and at that point, Shahid had expressed interest. But then with many Bollywood projects, we talk a lot and then sometimes things don’t go off very well. When the lockdown happened, I believe Shahid was talking with Raj and DK and then asked about this project and said let’s just go ahead and make this. At that point, all of us decided to make it a series instead of a feature film because there’s so much to write and explore in this world and a feature would not have done justice to this subject. Actually, all four of us write with a lot of inherent humour and Shahid just walked into that part very naturally.
Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) and Gehlot (Zakir Hussain) were other highlights of the series. Did the star image of Sethupathi or his popularity determine the kind of lines you were writing for him?
Suman: Not really because we didn’t even know that when we wrote the feature. When we wrote the first draft, we didn’t have an actor in mind. We were writing just for the character and for the narrative. When Vijay and Zakir came on board, their chemistry only elevated what we had already written. The screenplay is nothing but an invitation for other artists to come and perform. But sometimes you have an actor in mind and you write for them and there is nothing wrong with that. For us, that was not the case.
Sita: When we wrote it, the character of Michael was named something else and he wasn’t even a South Indian. After Vijay came into the picture, we tweaked it and he brought in his own Hindi and created a whole new Hindi lexicon.
Sita, you have been working with Raj and DK for a long time now. What would you say is the best thing about working with them and how has the bond evolved over these years?
Sita: The three of us started off as friends and that goes for Suman as well. We all go back a long way. And Raj and DK are the ones who actually pulled me into this world of film writing. I had nothing to do with it. I had one foot in my day job, which was being a journalist, and one foot in writing for film. I did that for about 10 years, and then finally plunged fully into screenwriting.
The best thing about working with them is that I was groomed by them. I know what they like, I know how they think and to a large extent, my thoughts have been shaped by that. But it took me a long time to evolve into my own person and I’m happy that that voice is also being recognized. That’s the freedom I get with Raj and DK. They’re extremely open to ideas, open to all kinds of mad ideas, and the more different those ideas are, the more they’re welcomed.
With the Raj and DK spy universe being established, can we get Farzi cameos in The Family Man season 3?
Suman: It will be criminally irresponsible of me to give an answer to that question. So I can only say we’ll wait and watch. I’m contractually bound not to talk about it. I don’t think we should let the cat out of the bag now if at all there is a cat in the bag. (laughs)
Creating a multiverse is not a joke. Without going too much into detail, it was a fun thing. My friends have sent me videos of their girlfriends or their partners shrieking with delight when they heard Shrikant’s (Bajpayee) voice or when they saw Chellam sir (Uday Mahesh). In that, it served its purpose. I don’t want to further speculate on how it is and whether it will follow through because everything depends on what the final narrative of season three is going to be.
So the decision of basing The Family Man and Farzi in the same universe was not planned?
Sita: No, it wasn’t. It literally happened on the day of the shoot. We were shooting in town where the TASC (fictitious Government agency in the series The Family Man) office is. Raj happened to see that lane and was filled with fond memories of The Family Man. He said why don’t we make Michael walk past it? And he started calling everybody from The Family Man to see who was available for the shoot.
A lot of people have compared the narrative structure of Farzi with Breaking Bad.
Suman: You can say that about any story because there are only seven kinds of stories in the world. You cannot go beyond that so anybody is free to form their opinion about it but the truth is that you just have to watch the series to know.
Sita: Let me put it this way. There are storytelling templates for these genres. For example, Breaking Bad was set around meth and ours is set around counterfeiting. When you have these strange, unexplored worlds, you will have parallels. You will find yourself running the gamut of the counterfeiter, his friend, the kingpin, the politician, the press- and you will run across that entire ecosystem.
Upcoming projects:
Sita: Right now, we are in the middle of production for Citadel India. It’s a global spy verse created by the Russo brothers. Then there is Farzi 2. Personally, there is also a feature film coming up, which is entirely not related to spies or action or thrillers.
Suman: We have The Family Man 3 and then Farzi 2. I am also shooting my directorial debut in Tamil. We just finished one schedule and there is one more feature film finally going on floors.
Farzi is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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