Celebrating failures on screen would be edgy: Nitesh on 'Chhichhore'

 re was something about being a 'loser' that didn't let Nitesh Tiwari and his team of writers  Piyush Gupta and Nikhil Mehrotra  go of idea of 'Chhichhore' for six years.

It was question: why is failing t celebrated eugh and success given precedence over trying? college-buddy-drama, featuring an ensemble cast including Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Kapoor and Varun Sharma, released last week to acclaim and encouraging box office numbers. 

film shifts spotlight from succeeding at any cost to failing, and moving on. "Celebrating failures was always re. depiction of it evolved over time," Nitesh says. In an interview with PTI, trio say y deliberated on how to depict failure on screen and what mode to use to express it creatively.

So, when 'Chhichhore' sprints towards its climax  set around a sports competition among hostels in an engineering college  re is a lot at stake. This gave director perfect opportunity to deliver his mess: what matters when final whistle blows is that one tried.

"We had explored different options too how y don't want to admit that y lost. We had five options for everything. But it wasn't sounding honest. We felt we would be cheating if we didn't tell story in its entire honesty.

"Although we felt this was a bit edgy because people aren't used to seeing this kind of stuff. re's a certain kind of fixed expectations and format we are used to watching. Still, we always went back to this option as it communicated thought perfectly," Nitesh said.

'Chhichhore', also starring Tahir Raj Bhasin, Prateik Babbar, Naveen Polishetty, Tushar Pandey and Saharsh Kumar Shukla, chronicles 'before and after' of seven friends across two timelines.

"We went through so many drafts. We had put out whole timelines side by side, 1992 and 2019, and se timelines had to make sense on ir own and also in totality. We always kept idea on simmer but never forgot. 

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"After 'Dangal', we started cooking it properly, added spices to it. So purpose of telling story was present from beginning, but it was different and kept evolving," Nitesh said.

writers' room for film had a simple rule: write with a lot of discipline but don't forget to have fun.

"Advertising taught us discipline , we are well aware that we are writing for audience, t ourselves. Once you have that filter in mind, a lot of desire to show off your skills goes away. You're only worried about getting logic right. For us, story is star," Nitesh said. 

When Nitesh mentions getting logic right, it comes down to something as basic as giving characters names. film features colourful names of boys in hostel according to ir individual traits.

While Sexa and Derek were Nitesh's senior and super senior and Bewada his batchmate, director said or names  Mummy and Acid were creatively changed, but both se characters existed during his four years at IIT Bombay. 

For Sushant's character, Anirudh 'Anni' Pathak, Nitesh was clear that a lesser-used on-screen name was needed. same amount of deliberation went into film's title. Nikhil and Piyush say, among three of m, y had come up with "hundreds" of titles until 'Chhichhore' came up.

"I was uncomfortable with 'Chhichhore' as a word. Because word encapsulates fun but t story. Nitesh would say 'Ok so you come up with something better?'" Piyush said. 

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But, title worked well for director. 'Chhichhore' defines beautifully what film is trying to say. We are all driven by labels given to us by society. Once you give someone a label, you stop looking at ir goodness. 'He's short-tempered, he's alcoholic.' But even y have qualities. 

"This is what film is trying to do - Chhichhore also have a lot of goodness. Just because a label of 'Chhichhore' or 'loser' has been given doesn't mean y can't be anything else," Nitesh said.

Along with praise for film, re has been criticism regarding its lack of female representation. Critics ted that Shraddha's character Maya was a mere spectator who is reacting to situations and hoped she was given a stronger voice. director says it is a boys hostel film, set up in an engineering college, where boy-girl ratio was an "extremely skewed" of 45:1.

"Just because a girl needs to be put in, because someone will feel happy that re's more representation of a female, I'm t going to compromise on my story. We have to write to our sensibilities, what does justice to storyline. 

"re's end to this argument. As writers, we have to stick to what's going to do maximum justice to our storyline. I personally feel one girl is eugh to give competition to everyone," Nitesh added. 

However, director is "extremely touched" with response to film and said his whole hostel, entire institute is in love with film. While climax of 'Chhichhore' gives a peek into lives its leads, thing is shown of Prateik Babbar's Raggie - headstrong, talented rival senior who spirals life-changing events in film.

Raggie was "t an evil boy" but like all everyone else, he would've also shed his label today. "What he is to his team members in Hostel 3, he would be a more chilled out version because life must've taught him a nice, important lesson. He will be more easy-going, friendly as a boss and doing well for himself."

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