Anurag Basu on Metro In... Dino: Started writing it even before Jagga Jasoos'

Anurag Basu could very well be a character in his own film Within a few seconds into our call the filmmaker says Despite so many flaws people are liking Metro In Dino Thats validating On being asked at the end of the halfanhour long conversation if he can list at least one flaw in the film he replies I am not going to tell you How can I talk about it in the release week I will tell you laterLike his characters its difficult to predict an end to Basus beginning Like his characters he is honest about what he shares and what he doesnt When I hit the kitchen half the people dont know what they are going to get servedIn this interview with mid day the filmmakerwriter opens up on the Basu way of filmmaking what he wants to tell people in love and the wrong show size that Ranbir Kapoor sent himSurrounded by the constant noise of ldquobigrdquo ldquospectaclerdquo ldquoactionrdquo ldquohorror comedyrdquo did you fear if a love story would work on the big screen anymoreWhenever I start making a film I always ask myself lsquoWhat kind of film do I want to watchrsquo Thats the first step towards making and writing a story So this is how Metro came to my mind that I want to see a film like this in the theatres But that was two years ago I hope there are many audiences like me who want to see a film like this in the theatreIt will be an understatement to call your process of filmmaking unique Whoever one speaks to says lsquoDada has the script in his mind He tells us briefly about our characters and some situations Rest we surrender to himhelliprsquo This has become such a big deal with Anurag Basu Have you ever found yourself questioning this method or is this the only way you knowI dont know This is how I am actually When I hit the kitchen I make the food the same way Half the people dont know whats going to get served later So I think this happens in everything in my life So I just decide on a menu I tell everybody there are so many guests coming Ill make this When the dinner is served everybody says lsquoOh you made this also and that is also therersquo So I improvise on the go This is both my strength and weakness And I dont shy away from it This is my personality what can I doThis can go either way But your collaborators place implicit faith in youIts horrifying because the day I donrsquot deliver it will really backfire I have to deliver every timeThis trust sometimes is very scary When I see these interviews of actors promoting the film and they say they have this blind trust on me and they have surrendered all these words actually horrifies me because the only person to be blamed for the film not working is then me Every time a film doesnt work everyone has an equal stake right But somehow because of my way of working it all comes on me by the end of it Thats when its very scary If something goes wrong it will all fall on meRight Whatrsquos the magic pill you have that you get the actors to deliver some of their best works with you Aditya Roy Kapur and Sara Ali Khan have been criticised in the past for their performancesmdash especially Saramdash but she was such a surprise element in the film You seemed to know how to use their strengthsThey are amazing actors The thing that I have been criticisedmdash keeping actors uninformed till the endmdash is actually my to take out good performance from them to keep a blank slate in their mind and give them no information till the end and then see on the set whatever happens Every director has his or her own way This is my wayWhen you give a lot of information to the actorsmdash because everybody is creativemdash they will take their own creative journey They will form the scene in their head And undoing that becomes very difficult later on Thats the reason I take this path Everybody else is informed otherwise You cannot go on set with a hyperlink film without writing it Its impossible to go on floors with a Ludo or a Metrohellip which has such a complex interlinked domino effect of characters and stories without writing the scenes beforehand So everything is set and ready My whole unit knows whats happening But the actorsAt which stage did you decide that the film would feature musical bits which were very carefully concealed from all the visual assetsFrom the very beginning when this was conceived In fact Metro was conceived as a musical It was always supposed to be this way The first time when I sat writing the film I wrote for a week or 10 days and put it aside Then Jagga Jasoos started so the musical aspect of Metro automatically came into Jagga After Jagga I said lsquoLets make it the way it was conceived years agorsquoThe comical bits Metrohellip is hilarious Thatrsquos also where the film makes a stark departure from Life in ahellip Metro You have put these characters who feel very real in these hyperexaggerated comical situations Was this tone also decided in the beginning itselfI remember when I started writing Metro the first thought about how the story would be I captioned itmdash fish out of water kind of situation Thats how I started approaching the story So it happened by itself I wanted this tonality Otherwise how would I make it different from the earlier Metro I scratched my head I didnt know how to make it different This was the only way I cracked it actuallyHow much has your outlook changed on relationships and love from Life in a metro to Metrohellip In Dino Is there something which you feel has fundamentally changed in you or the way you look at relationshipsThe main theme of the film is that if you want to spend the rest of your life with someone you have to fall in love with the same person again and again I cracked it only now at this age and stage in my life So Ive been doing this with my wife forever I have understood this now in my life at this age So the main theme of the film is inspired from my lifeEven though both the films feature broken unconventional and incomplete relationships the big difference between the two I felt as a viewer is that Metrohellip In Dino is more relationship and love driven while the first one was more driven by the conflict within an individual and exploration of individualistic desiresEven if people then and now looked for love Life in ahellip Metro felt more about lsquoWhat do I wantrsquo while this asked lsquoWhat do I want with himherrsquo This one also leaves you on a more romantic hopeful note2007 was also such a different time Today we are surrounded by more uncertainty than ever before We see tragedies violence and grimness all around Love seems to be the only thing that could give one hope So it also felt like you are speaking to the times we are living in Do you feel the difference in the world of then and now has also evolved your thought processSo in the earlier Metro I didnt take a stand as a director in the film It was just a mirror to the society This time around theres a stand that this is what I want to say Therersquos a positivity You have to keep trying I am saying lsquoDonrsquot give it uprsquo Its all a cycle of life Thats how the film ends Onersquos end is the others beginning and vice versa I think this is the only stand I have taken as a filmmaker in the film to add this small message somewhere otherwise the film is just a mirror to the societyWhy did you feel the need to add a messageBecause whats happening around me is I feel like people dont try in love They give up very quickly I am seeing this a lot around me I tell them thodi toh koshish karo give it a try a little bit more I think people my friends who tell me their stories everyonersquos problem has the same root cause They give up too quicklyOne of the best things about the film is how youve treated your female characters with agency grace and making space for them to fall Can you talk to me about itHow do I answer this question because this film I will dedicate and give the credit for these stories to the women who raised me loved me outsmarted me my daughters The credit goes to all of themAnd this guilt that youre not giving your women Itrsquos a very convenient trope in cinema Even in 2025 when a woman falters its not just her fumbling its almost like lsquoYou are not expected to do that because youre a womanrsquo But you just stripped them off any gendered expectationMost of the story comes out with what if So what if it happens to me and my wife What if she goes to Goa What if I discover that How will I react Stories come to you when you put yourself and your dear ones in the character and start thinking how he or she will react Itrsquos very painful to put yourself in such situations But most of the times as a writer you put yourself and people you really know in those characters For example I would think how my cousin would have reacted if she was FatimaI have a complaint to make though Fatima and Alirsquos characters begin on an equal footing but as the story progresses it becomes more about the manrsquos coming of age and Fatimas character took a backseat and became an observer In the scene where he comes back and accepts his flaws honestly it felt like the natural end you would give them is separation even if briefly to come back healthier as individuals and a couple It felt very convenient that they got back together especially because their situation felt the most realistic When you were writing did you ever feel lsquoMaybe I can part them for some time or maybe they dont need to be togetherrsquoNo I never felt like that Youre not the first one to make this observation Twothree other people have also told me this So I think what youre saying resonated with others Sometimes a directorrsquos wishful thinking about a character becomes dominant and you feel lsquoYeah letrsquos do it this wayrsquo So thats how the end of their segment shaped up I think it was my wishful thinking about their story that this is how it should end Maybe itrsquos not right But their story was always supposed to end like this for meI want to talk about how your friendship with Pritam has come out in the film There are 15 to 20 seconds of a scene just on Pritams closeup You seem to be so much in love with him Of course storywise there is a metro band which appears everywhere But it also felt like Pritam was the codirector or the filmrsquos second voiceIt was I said this before the release as well that it is Pritamrsquos film more than mine Itrsquos his baby as much as its my baby He has poured his heart into this one Pritam wasnrsquot ready to make an appearance in the film initially He said lsquoI was new at the time of the old Metro Now I donrsquot want to do it I forced him to do it by telling him lsquoI will also make an appearance if you do itrsquo Thatrsquos why therersquos a cameo of mine in the film I told Pritam lsquoWe will all make cameos in the film You dont shy away from this thingrsquo Vijay Ganguly choreographer has also made a cameo Imtiaz Ali filmmaker has also done itWill a third Metrohellip happenNot very soon at least A hyperlink film takes a lot of workThere have been reports of you reuniting with Ranbir for a project Are you guys talking about somethingYeah I hope it happens soon I am dying to work with him Woh bohot aadat kharab kar deta hai We keep talking about working with each other Baatein toh hoti rehti hai Abhi dobara jootein bhejein hain usne Pehle galat size bheje thhe