Tigmanshu Dhulia’s career has come full circle. His first film, Haasil (2003), dealt with the good, the bad and the ugly of student politics, with the director’s alma mater, Allahabad University, as the backdrop. Exactly two decades later, he is back with another production, Garmi, with the same theme and setting, but as a web series.
“I wanted to revisit the space of student politics and show how society has changed. During my research in Allahabad, I could feel the change, the badlav. Now, everybody is running after money. During my time, there was theatre, plays, art and music, and Sher-o-Shayari, but now such activities are absent because they don’t yield money. Aesthetically and culturally, we have become poor,” says Dhulia. He adds, “I have had first-hand experience with student activism, and it was interesting to revisit that world.”
Garmi, which was released on April 21 on SonyLiv, is a youth political drama. Its protagonist, played by newcomer Vyom Yadav, moves out of his hometown with aspirations of becoming a civil servant but stumbles into the world of college politics, powerplay and crime. It also stars Puneet Singh and Disha Thakur among others.
For Dhulia, the location has always been a character in itself, and that’s why he shoots in environments that lend a sense of authenticity to the story. For instance, he filmed the Irrfan-starrer biopic, Paan Singh Tomar, in the valleys of Chambal, as well as the barracks in Roorkee where the athlete-turned-dacoit lived. Several segments of Garmi, like Haasil all those years ago, were shot at Allahabad University.
“The location captures the essence of the story; it sets the tone. In fact, some students from other colleges in Allahabad ended up joining Garmi. The city’s vibrant intellectual atmosphere was essential in bringing alive the plot,” Dhulia says, adding, “Small towns have conflicts of various kinds, and people relate to them.”
The National Award-winning director, who holds a Master’s degree in theatre from Delhi’s National School of Drama, has also helmed the Sahib, Biwi Aur Gangster franchise. He dabbles in acting as well and is best known for his role as Ramadhir Singh in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur.
At a time when Bollywood actors and directors are just beginning, or still contemplating, exploring the OTT space, Dhulia is already on his third series. “Web is our future,” says the director, who debuted in the digital medium with Criminal Justice (2019), co-directed by Vishal Furia, followed by the political thriller series, The Great Indian Murder, in 2022.
“All of us in Hindi cinema have tried to make movies with unique stories, but somehow it tends to get formulaic, and I don’t think we will be able to break the formula.
Just getting theatres to release a film is a challenge. That isn’t true for OTT, and the reach of digital is far more,” says Dhulia. The filmmaker is gearing up to present another biopic of director K Asif and his herculean adventure of directing the most iconic film, Mughal-e-Azam.
“I learnt about some incidents during the making of the film which intrigued me. K Asif’s life is equally fascinating. He himself was a magnum opus. That man was a school dropout, tailoring was his craft, and he made just two films in his life,” says Dhulia.
And, while he is still fleshing out the story along with writers Kamlesh Pandey and Iqbal Rizvi, Dhulia is looking forward to first wrapping up the cop-dacoit thriller Ghamasaan, starring Arshad Warsi and Pratik Gandhi. The film is inspired by the life of a selfless young IPS officer (Gandhi) from Uttar Pradesh.