Hansal Mehta: I have never been in the game of sensationalising content on OTT to rake up controversy

There is no doubt that the OTT as a medium has creators the liberty to experiment with content. However, there have been many instances where makers have churned out shows and films that have received flak from all quarters for their crass content, leading to a call for censorship in the space. While many may not stand by the idea, director Hansal Mehta remains unbothered by the discourse. He simply believes in “being responsible.”

“My show Scam 1992 was watched by the entire family. I wanted to take the content to a wider audience without any malicious intent.,” he says, adding, “I think it’s more about the intent and censor board, too, looks at your intent ultimately,” he tells us.

Giving examples of his other projects, Mehta shares how Faraaz, Shahid (2012) and Aligarh (2015) were passed without a single cut despite being sensitive films. Even Omerta (2017), despite being a very violent film, was passed with just one cut, he tells us, and goes on, “Censorship comes in when you are trying to sensationalise things just to rake up controversy. I’ve never been in that game. I want my stories to live beyond that weekend, beyond that controversy, because controversy last for a few days. But good stories leave behind a legacy for generations to comes.”

After Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story became a rage, people’s expectations were at peak when we announced Scoop. Ask him if he felt pressured to deliver something that surpassed the success of the former show and the filmmaker replies, “I don’t believe in taking pressure. In fact, soon after Scam was released, I went on a trip. And when I came back, I started working on Faraaz from the very next day. People told me things like ‘aree aap ye bana sakte ho, wo bana sakte ho, why are you getting into something like Faraaz, but I followed what my heart told me.”

The filmmaker also calls his “sense of casting” one of his strengths in the art. Whether it was Scam 1992, or the latest project Scoop, which featured actors Karishma Tanna, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub and Tanmay Dhanania among others, his choice of casting has been widely appreciated. Acknowledging this, Mehta says, “Shuruwaat se hi na mera dimaag thoda teda hai. If there is a choice that everybody would make, I want to go a different way, and take the road less travelled. And it’s completely unconscious. So while casting also, I do not go with the obvious. My only guiding forces is when that person (actor) comes in front of me, does the character also come alive”.

The Faraaz director says he has been like that since the beginning of his career with Jayate, 25 years ago. “There I had a character of an aging lawyer and there were lots good actors including Panjak Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah who were actively working back then,” he recalls. But the ace filmmaker went with an unusual choice and casted Sachin Khedekar to play that part. “Nobody would have thought of it and it was Sachin’s first film. While casting, I think about whether or not I will be able to spend that many days living with the character played by this actor or not,” he shares.

Quoting the very recent instance of Scoop, he continues, “Harman was a very unusual choice and people were surprised to see him. In fact, he had given up on acting because of his experiences and I had to convince him to take up the role.”

For him, casting the right people is very essential because otherwise it gets very difficult to live with the wrong actor throughout the project. “The idea of casting is that you should have fun while you are working. That is my motto. The process has to be greater than the outcome,” he says.

But has he ever regretted casting the wrong ones? Mehta is quick to point out how even when there have been misfires in terms of the projects, the casting has always been good. “You can see in all my misfires, actors have been praised. I have an instinct for actors and I’ve been blessed that I’ve worked with good actors. So casting has always been on point,” he ends.