From a childhood split between Ranchi and Kerala to a modest start in Chennai’s advertising world, and a long-held dream of assisting Mani Ratnam, everything Suresh Triveni worked towards seems to converge in this one year. It has been intense, exacting, and deeply fulfilling, marked by three significant projects: Daldal as creator, and Subedaar and Maa Behen as director.
His upcoming project, Maa Behen, starring Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Triptii Dimri, Dharna Durga, and Ravi Kishan, has been years in the making. Triveni began writing it in 2017, soon after Tumhari Sulu, his breakout comedy-drama. This time, he moves into a darker territory. A dysfunctional family anchors the story, but humour remains central. “Maa Behen has humour right in the centre,” he says, adding that screenwriter Pooja Tolani describes it as a “domestic noir.” “It’s a film I can’t wait to show to the world,” he admits.
Triveni is instinctive about the stories he chooses. “I have to be excited, nervous, and challenged—only then I jump into a story,” he says. “It has to be human and should have the potential to be cinematic.” That instinct carries into Subedaar, the multi-starrer action-drama currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. “It was curated for Anil Kapoor,” he says, calling it a tribute to the cinema he grew up on—“a proper drama with action at the centre.” High-voltage and emotional, it is also, he feels, the kind of Hindi cinema that has been missing lately.
With Daldal, Triveni stepped into the role of showrunner for the first time—an experience he “thoroughly enjoyed.” “It was a great learning curve and resonated very well with viewers,” he says.
Even as he started his career in sales and marketing, cinema remained his constant. A personal setback—the loss of his father—briefly led him into a corporate career. “After a 9-to-5 job for a few years, I realised I wasn’t happy,” he says. A move to a music channel in Chennai followed, and gradually, a return to storytelling. Mumbai expanded his canvas. In 2015, he directed the widely popular Mauka Mauka ad series during the Cricket World Cup, gaining instant visibility. But it was Tumhari Sulu that established his voice.
Across his work, women remain at the centre. Not by design, he insists. “There has been no conscious effort… It’s just panned out like that. I’ve been lucky,” he says. What stands out across collaborators—Vidya Balan, Shefali Shah, Bhumi Pednekar, Madhuri Dixit, Triptii Dimri, Dharna Durga—is their shared drive. “The one thing common between them is hunger. I’m motivated by actors willing to step out of their comfort zone.”
In an industry reshaped by OTT platforms and the growing presence of AI, it is the uncertainty that excites him. “These shifts push us to think more,” he says. “It’s very difficult to get a distracted audience immersed in your work. But that’s a challenge I’m enjoying.”
After 18 months of juggling three demanding projects, Triveni wants to give himself some time. “I have a few ideas,” he says. “But first, I need some rest.” He calls it a pause. It sounds more like a reset before the next run.