Sujoy Ghosh: Decoding the mystery director
It seems thrillers and Sujoy Ghosh walk hand-in-hand. After exploring the genre with full-length feature films like Kahaani (2012) and Badla (2019), and short films like Ahalya (2015) and Anukul (2017), Ghosh sticks to it as he makes his digital debut with Typewriter, a web-series for Netflix, releasing today. Set in Goa, the five-episode series presents a mystery drama with children at the forefront, a theme that is heavily inspired by his childhood desire to go on an adventure, as it happens in storybooks. Ahead of the release of the series, we ask the writer-director about the journey of Typewriter, the challenges of writing a web-series, and how attached he is to appreciation and criticism. Excerpts:
What inspired you to write Typewriter?
This is something that I wanted to do for a long time. For me, Typewriter was like reliving my childhood and doing all those things that I wanted to do as a child. Growing up reading Enid Blyton and Asterix, I always wanted to go on an adventure to a treasure island or something like that, but I never got to do it since life is different from storybooks.
But, it kind of stayed with me for a long time. When I saw films like Jurassic Park, I liked the fact that kids are the protagonists and are saving the world. I wanted to make a film like that, and when Netflix gave me a chance to do a series on the same topic, I thought it is great, it can be done! If they would’ve asked me to write Badla into a series, I couldn’t have, but this could be done and hence, I took the task of writing it. Afterwards, it dawned on me that I had undertaken a mammoth task.
Did you convert a film script into a web-series?
No, I hadn’t written it at all. I just had a pitch in my head, which I told the Netflix team. Our meeting actually lasted for only five minutes. I pitched my idea and they agreed.
Was writing for a web series different from writing a film script?
That’s the nature of the beast. That’s what we have undertaken. So, I can’t pretend to be surprised by that. But, it is incredibly challenging, I had to unlearn whatever I had learnt in films and start afresh.
And, there are no guidelines to teach you how to write it. Writing a film is a cakewalk when compared to writing a web series. For example, when I take the character of Ravi Anand (Purab Kohli), who is the police inspector and is in his mid-30s, I have to decide which part of his life I need to pick up. It’s a call that I have to make and there is no right and wrong.
Besides, I have to keep Ravi Anand for five episodes, people should see a new Anand in each episode else they will get bored of seeing the same Anand. Unlike a film where I can make one pregnant woman run through Kolkata and get away with that.
Quick five
- Favourite director, actor and actress: Satyajit Ray, Amitabh Bachchan and Meryl Streep/Vidya Balan
- If you have to remake a movie of yours: None. Everything has its own time and space, nothing is ahead of its time or late. You made a film, it didn’t work, live with it.
- A story you would love to adapt: Kabuliwala
- Writing or directing: Writing because I get to live a lot more lives
- If not a filmmaker?: Anything. I am not fussy about jobs. I could even be a cab driver.