Dibakar Banerjee opens up about Sandeep Aur Pinki Faraar's unique plot, Read here

Director Dibakar Banerjee was t interested in exploring dynamic of a typical relationship between a man and woman in "Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar", which he says, is his attempt to make something twisted on and patriarchy.

Even names are a flip on expectations as female lead is kwn as 'Sandeep' while male protagonist is called 'Pinky'. Backed by Yash Raj Films and starring two mainstream Bollywood stars in Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor, film will "provoke, intrigue and unsettle" audiences, director said.   

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Dibakar Banerjee on plot 

" thought was to look at in a way we hadn't looked at before. I was t really satisfied with template of a typical relationship between a man and a woman. Why make a film about it? That's when, certain things that I've always wondered about, came toger. In this case, it's ," Dibakar told PTI in an interview. director, kwn for films such as "Khosla Ka Ghosla", "Love Sex Aur Dhokha" and "Shanghai", is t new to subverting expectations and predictable scenarios to tell stories that stand apart in Bollywood.

"Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar", he said, gave him a chance to play off Bollywood's own "unsaid and implicit patriarchy" through two actors.  " big studios are famous for that kind of patriarchy and that kind of marginalisation of women, that kind of male gaze. Even when you have films that sort of break male gaze, confusion is even more apparent because in same film, gaze keeps changing because we are taught to appease masses, give m what y want. We need male gaze and we need female as a consumption material for that male gaze," he said.

Parineeti, Dibakar said, is a talented actor, but has been at receiving end of Bollywood's patriarchal approach.

"y have played a couple before in films where patriarchy has been nauseating. It's a part of ir life. y have to survive. Parineeti has been on receiving end of that kind of a patriarchal divide and treatment. In so many films, she is such a talented actress, (but has been) re as target of gaze," he said.

"Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar", marks Parineeti and Arjun's third film toger after ir full-fledged debut "Ishaqzaade" in 2012 and "Namaste England" (2018).

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" kind of profile Arjun and Parineeti have, I had this opportunity to do something slightly interesting and twisted. se opportunities happen once in a while," director said.  For Dibakar, who has always maintained that he makes films "cheap", idea is to make his movies "as interesting as possible while kwing that it will provoke and intrigue and unsettle, rar than sort of give audience 'everything is okay' bill." 

big idea, filmmaker said, was to explore collision of two Indias, also divided by class. 

"In India, along with , we have ar great divide, which is class divide. I wanted to overlap se two divides, because Adi (producer Aditya Chopra) and I kept talking about two Indias and how se two survive cheek by jowl. "y are like hundred metres apart from each or but Indian from India one has got less chances of meeting an Indian from India two than he has of meeting a German tourist. I found se two layers of two Indias and quite interesting to overlap," he said.

In film, two characters belong to different classes, Dibakar said. "y have almost zero chance of meeting each or meaningfully, and are forced to t only be toger but run from a common enemy and n lean on each or to survive while hating each ors guts. I found that quite interesting and everything started from that premise," he said.

"Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar" was earlier supposed to hit screens in 2018. It was later pushed to 2019 but it didn't release last year.

Asked wher delay in release of film was worrisome, director, whose last atrical outing was "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!" in 2015, said he is used to unpredictability in life. 

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In meanwhile, he went on to do two Netflix anthology projects in "Lust Stories" and "Ghost Stories".

"You're speaking to director of 'Khosla Ka Ghosla' and 'Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye', whose release coincided with Taj attack (in 2008). re are many things that I have braved, t braved but endured in my life. This wasn't something that was happening to me for first time.

"As I'm aging, I'm realising that I'm beginning to care less and less about where and when and how to caring a little more about what happens," Dibakar said. His next project, ar Netflix film "Freedom", starring Naseeruddin Shah, Manisha Koirala, Kalki Koechlin, Zoya Husain, and Neeraj Kabi. "Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar" is slated to be released on March 20. 

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