In a conversation with Kanu Behl, the director of Titli, Riya Sharma finds out that despite international acclaim, the movie’s script was written keeping the Indian audience in mind. Behl further shares the reason why he wanted Dibakar Banerjee to produce his directorial debut
The story of Titli revolves around a boy who doesn’t want to join the family business and has an oppressive elder brother. He wants to escape the harsh world and live his own life. “I had a difficult relationship with my father and that is the reason we considered him as the right person to play the part. He knew what I was talking about, he knew the references so there were no hard feelings between us. We were completely normal with each other, he knew that we had a job to do so he was completely fine,” says Kanu Behl, the director of the film.
Though the story is about Titli, the central character but the director shares that the audience will watch it from different facets. The societal role that one is playing, they will see that they can relate to the five characters in the movie. “This wasn’t done deliberately, I had set the movie for Titli, who wants to escape from the domination of an oppressive brother. But you see, this is the natural part of writing — that it evolves every time you write about a character. We wanted the characters to be situated in the reality as everyone has their own life and experiences. So, by the time we wrapped up, we realised we had discovered all the five characters who are living around Titli.”
As the director has been heard saying that the story is close to his heart as it presents a complex relationship that a younger brother has with his elder brother. So, is it loosely modellled on himIJ “I should say, it began with me. It talks about my early experience with my father. The idea was to bring those experience while writing the script. But we evolved a protagonist that has a life of its own. A model based on my life has grown in the way of what we have as Titli,” shares the debut director.
Not only the story seems interesting, but the director has also roped in some new faces for his directorial debut. Wasn’t it a gamble to have new faces for his movie and he shares, “Neelu and Titli had to have new faces. We chose Amit because when he plays a character, he actually becomes the character and leaves no image of actor lingering between. I knew Shashank (Titli) because he is my best friend’s cousin so he was in Mumbai and I called him to see whether he would fit in for the role. It turned out that he was completely opposite to what Titli is. He is an urban upper-middle class boy so we made him get to know what Titli is and then he really worked hard to get the right feel of the character. As far as Neelu (Shivani) is concerned, we ensured that she was comfortable in front of camera.”
Behl adds that he wanted the movie to be a documentary. “I wanted everything to look real. I wanted the space to look real where someone has accidentally put a camera and recorded everything. When we were shooting with Ranvir Shorey, we had to make sure that people don’t recognise him. It was a sensitive script which had to look real, stresses the director.
The movie even before the release has got eyeballs from the international film fraternity. The movie was sent to Cannes film festival where it got a great response but the director shares that he never imagined or thought that the movie will achieve credition as this. “The movie is made keeping the Indian audience in mind. If people abroad could relate to it, then I am hoping that people in our own country would like it too,” hopes the director.
As this is Behl’s third movie with Dibakar Banerjee, the director feels that he was lucky to work with him for his directorial debut. “Though it may sound like a cliche, but it was a great experience to work with him again. We believe in the same kind of films and what he didn’t get from his first film— he made sure that as a producer, he does that justice for my film. As we were on a small budget, we ensured that this financial factor didn’t screw things up for the movie,” wraps up the director for us.