Sonam Nair’s Amazon Prime Video show Dupahiya has been getting a positive response from the audiences and critics alike. Starring Gajraj Rao, Renuka Shahane, Sparsh Shrivastava, Bhuvan Arora and Shivani Raghuvanshi, it is a humorous show set in a village. Nair talks about the show and more in an interview with us.
From Gippi (2013) to Dupahiya, you have come a very long way. Has it been an arduous journey?
It has had its ups and downs, but I can safely say I always stuck to my guns, and worked on projects that I felt passionate about instead of chasing stars or budgets. A slow and steady approach pays off better in the end, I feel. And the ride has been rewarding.
How did Dupahiya come your way?
Shubh and Salona, our producers and co-creators, reached out to me for the project. The script was almost all done, and had been developed at Amazon Prime already. It was a gift that was handed to me, and I’ll always be grateful. Especially because no one was thinking of me for such projects before, figuring I could only do urban setups and women-led projects. Shubh and Salona knew that I could balance quirky humour with emotions and thankfully reached out.
Were you at all familiar with the Bihari milieu?
The exact milieu wasn’t familiar to me, but I have grown up in a very small town in Bengal called Rishra. So, the first eighteen years of my life were very simple and peaceful, away from any hustle-bustle. Somewhere, I was craving that again when this project came to me, and took me back to the simple joys of life. We did grow up with quite a few Bihari neighbours around us, as Bengal is close to Bihar. But for this particular dialect we hired a coach who not only trained all the actors, but trained me too.
The humour and the plot is so fertile and original, how closely did you work with the writers in getting there?
That is all credit to the writers Avinash Dwivedi and Chirag Garg, and the guiding hands of Shubh and Salona. When the script came to me, it was 90 percent done. I just came my small inputs as a director, just asked them to edit or shuffle around a few things. When you’re already handed gold, you don’t want to mess with it. I was blown away by how fresh the script was.
The actors are mostly bang on. How on earth did you zero in on these irreplaceables?
We got very lucky with our cast, I have to agree. I have never worked with such a talented ensemble before where we just can’t choose who has done the best job. They’re all so good! Our casting director Romil was a huge boon as he had access to some of the most terrific actors from the heartland. For the primary casting, besides the obvious parameters of everyone fitting their roles and having some good work behind them, I had two parameters. One was that whoever we cast must be as excited about this script and project as I am. I didn’t want anyone who is doing this as just another job. And the second was that they have to be good human beings. Once these two things are sorted, I knew the audience would he happy because we were all happy making it. Rest was just on instinct, really.
Was it tough acclimatizing yourself to the characters’ milieu and language?
All the actors did about two months of dialect coaching, and I sat for almost all those sessions with the actors. So, that I could just inhale the dialect and even start thinking in it. By the time we got to shoot, I knew the dialect and then the challenge was to make it authentic but also accessible to the rest of the audience, who are Hindi speaking. As far as village life goes, we really took notes in prep during our visits to the different villages in MP and UP, where we shot the series, pertaining to production design, costumes, props, etc. However, because this village was supposed to be the ‘Belgium of Bihar’, we definitely chose to make the village look aspirational and vibrant.
How do you respond to the comparisons with Panchayat?
We are all very flattered by the comparison, as to be compared to one of the most successful and loved shows on OTT is a big compliment. We’ll be more than happy to have the Panchayat fans come and watch our show. Amazon Prime will have to decide about a second season, but I know I would love to return to Dhadakpur. In the meantime, I’m developing a few ideas. Though I want to take in all the learnings from Dupahiya post release, and only then decide which way to go next.
Also Read: Sparsh Srivastava on the challenges of doing comedy in Dupahiya, “Initially, there was a sense of fear because…”
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