Rajeev Barnwal on why Jehanabad feels like an outsider’s view: ‘I wanted it to reach a wider audience’

Writer-director Rajeev Barnwal has said that he deliberately avoided using the Magahi (spoken in Bihar’s Jehanabad region) in his new web show Jehanabad Of Love and War, because he wanted to ensure a larger audience for the Sony LIV web show. Talking about his show, Rajeev also shared his own experience of caste-based discrimination. (Also read: Jehanabad review)

In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Rajeev opened up on the inspiration behind the show, caste-dynamics in the region, weaving love story with the criminal incident of a jail break and more.

Rajeev was born in Jhumri Talaiya and was brought up in Dhanbad, and completed his graduation in Delhi where he began his first association with theatre. Later, he moved to Mumbai and has been working in the industry for 15 years.

Where did the story of Jehanabad begin?

In 2005, I was working for the first season of non-fiction show Crime Patrol and I went to Rajnandgaon (Chattisgarh) and I met a girl whose love story was very interesting. Around the same, I read about the Jehanabad jailbreak in newspapers and wondered how the planning must have taken place. When I worked on the show, I also spent a lot of time with former Naxalites who had joined the police forces. I tried to understand them. Having thought about it in 2005, the project finally got the green signal from Sony LIV in 2020.

How closely have you watched the caste-dynamics in the region?

I was brought up in that region and I had friends from both sides (of the societal division). People have been doing the same thing (caste-based discrimination) in a mechanical way. I am not saying only one caste tortured a particular one, or the other way around. I do not support any kind of violence. Even in the show, I have kept it very neutral. I did not comment on who is right and simply showed it as it is. As a kid, I would watch my mother giving tea to sweepers in separate cups and she never had a proper answer if I asked why that happened.

For example, there is this scene in the show as well where they discuss how caste identity (is hidden by using surnames like Kumar). My real name is Rajeev Kumar, I took up the screen name Barnwal. The reason behind that was not that I wanted to flaunt my caste, or show anything else. My only purpose was that anyone else sitting in Bihar with the same surname may feel inspired. I always wondered about my surname, and papa once explained to me about the connection between reservations and caste surnames. It is unfortunate that even today, this has not come to an end. I do not know why, but we are unable to love each other irrespective of caste or region.

The minutes details such as the language and the ways different castes interact, appear as an outsider’s view of the region in your show. Was that deliberate?

Yes, it was a deliberate move. Jehanabad has two parallel tracks, and that was not an easy task for me. My genre is slice-of-life, not crime thrillers, because I am an optimistic person. In the course of unraveling the story in Jehanabad Of Love and War, I did not want to hurt anyone. And, I wanted to reach a larger audience. When I watched Hey Ram, I was amazed with the writer – all of that is fictional and yet, I believed it. While writing Jehanabad, that influence stayed with me. I also wanted to avoid unnecessary abusive language in the show in the name of the backdrop being Bihar. I wanted to make a show that I could watch with my mom.

Your film, Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta’s Vadh also released on Netflix recently. How has the response been?

Yes, Vadh and Jehanabad came around the same time. We did not even know Vadh was coming on Netflix on February 3. It was suddenly announced, we just knew it would be in February. Vadh does not have a political statement, and Jehanabad has it. So, I knew the discussion would be around Jehanabad, not Vadh.

It was just last evening that Neena ji called up and told me that Shabana Azmi finally watched Vadh. She was shooting in Budapest and could not watch it earlier. Neena ji told me that Shabana ji discussed many scenes in detail with her, and was very happy having watched the film. I thanked Neena ji for sharing it with me. (It feels great to have) such an artist praise my work. Vadh is Vadh because of (the lead actors) Neena ji and Sanjay Mishra. People have been sharing messages around Vadh. Someone from Pakistan told me they loved the film.