In an interview with Outlook, director Sandeep Modi of 'The Night Manager' spoke at length about the adaptation, the toughest challenge he faced, spoke about his cast and crew, and a lot more. Part two of the series released on Disney+Hostar on June 29.
'The Night Manager Part 2' premiered on Disney+Hostar one day ahead of its release date. It stars Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur, Tillotama Shome and Sobhita Dhulipala among others. Created and directed by Sandeep Modi, 'The Night Manager' is the Indian adaptation of the British series of the same name. The Hindi adaptation has got an overwhelming response from the critics as well as the audience.
Ahead of the release of its second part, Garima Das of Outlook spoke to the captain of the ship, Sandeep where he spoke at length about the adaptation, the toughest challenge he faced, spoke about his cast and crew, and a lot more.
When asked about how nervous and excited he was about the show, Sandeep said, "I am actually surprised that I am slightly less nervous. I am more excited I would say because there has been a promise that we made to the audience with the first part and the fact that the promise is going to be fulfilled gives me immense joy. The nervousness is because the season is going to be over. It's taken such a long time for me to put this together so that the audience enjoys it and yes I can restart this journey with other seasons soon."
The British series was a successful one and adapting something like that was itself a challenge. When asked if he was being apprehensive, Modi said, "I would actually say that while everybody else was quite overwhelmed with the idea of making this show, I had a different take on it. I thought it was successful but it did have its moments which I thought had moments which were flawed and which could be done better. I felt if I could fix those, it was a great opportunity to do this and that's what we have tried to do. I would say that I was also armed with one of the nicest weapons that a filmmaker can have, naivety. We were so naive that we went with it knowing that this is the biggest show and the biggest challenge that has been thrown at us. All I want to do was to prove that I could tell the story even better."
While talking about the toughest challenge while doing 'The Night Manager', he said, "I think the biggest challenge was to ensure that all the heavyweights that I had casted and when I say casted, it's not the actors but also the crew from all across the world. The challenge was to ensure that all are able to express themselves because they all are the best actors and technicians out there. They are all expressing themselves to the best of their ability. But yet the vision of the show is not changing. How do we keep them all in the same direction, keep them together and keep them walking in the same thought which I have set out for them, that was the toughest challenge for me."
He also raved Anil Kapoor who loved being challenged. Further praising Kapoor, Modi said, "I think Anil Kapoor decides when he wants to give out his best and he keeps saying to surround him with the best so that he can be the best. He loves being challenged. So, the only thing we did was we kept him almost, and with all due respect he allowed us and wanted us to do it slightly away from his comfort zone. Firstly, he never played an antagonist before. He keeps saying that he has always played those angled antagonists, people who are villains but eventually come around or the funny ones. Never has he been an out-and-out baddy and we first say how do we play where it doesn't become a stereotype, how do we play it uniquely and differently? So, that challenge brought the best out of him. Also, he loved the actors we surrounded him with. Saswata (Chatterjee), Ravi Behl, Tillotama (Shome), Aditya (Roy Kapur), and Sobhita (Dhulipala). He would say, 'You have put the best of people around him and I have to continuously be on my toes'. He has to match up and stay in Shelly's zone. He is a man who doesn't take success lightly. He works really hard. So, it was all him. We just surrounded him with the right tools, environment, actors, dialogues, characters, and crew. I think he has shone like a diamond."
On his future projects, Sandeep said, "Since I found that now that I have done a couple of things with the OTT world, now I am very keen to try my luck in the most dangerous business of filmmaking which is making films for cinema. I hope me and Karan Johar who is producing it can talk about it soon."