Bambai Meri Jaan's Shujaat Saudagar, Avinash Tiwary on depicting Mumbai mafia

The opening scene of Bambai Meri Jaan showcases an intense conversation between Ismail KayKay Menon and Dara Avinash Tiwary The father and son are caught in a moment where the devout cop father is trying to dissuade his drug lord son from leaving the country Their relationship forms the crux of the show which is about a Bombay right after Independence of gangs and gangsters Directed by Shujaat Saudagar Gulmohar and starring Avinash Tiwary Bulbull Laila Majnu the show is about the mafia which has been an endless muse for many filmmakers and the relationship between a father and son We spoke to the directorduo and got a lowdown on their processExcerpts from the interviewAvinash Dara is a taxing character to portray How did you prepareAvinash This is the only script that I have done a reading for eight to ten times with the entire cast so most of the preparation began through readings Following that I did workshops with the dialogue writers Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal who worked on our lingo body language and how the characters would be as people It was intenseBambai Meri Jaan is about the Bombay of yore where gangsters walked the streetsThe series shows a complex progression of Dararsquos relationship with his fatherAT One thing I realised working with KayKay Menon Sir is that he is not just working for his role in the show but for the story This is different since actors often get driven by our own characters Working with him felt like a validation of my own talent because you must be capable enough to be acting alongside an actor of such great gravitas It has been one of my greatest learning experiences doing this character and delving into the psyche of this man DaraShujaat Saudagar It is a funny dichotomy they are like two sides of the same coin Their character traits are quite similar so I wanted to see how the plot unfolds when you pit these two men who happen to be father and son which brings them into an environment that is unavoidable I wished to explore what happens when the egos and pride of these two men clash straying away from the notion of labelling their relationship but seeing them as two independent characters They are both extremely grey characters and the story unfolds the consequences of their choicesWhere did you first spot Avinash and what made him suitable for the role of DaraSS Avinash was one of the first actors to audition for the role four years ago he was referred to me by Anmol Ahuja who is a casting director I had seen him in Tu hai Mera Sunday and at the time I didnrsquot pick him and took a hiatus of eight months flirting with other actors looking for that spark But I always kept going back to him Avinash Tiwary saying ldquoYaar who ladke mein kuch baat hairdquoHow was your relationship as actordirector on set and what was your dynamic as a duoSS Out of the 100 days we shot over three years we rarely spoke to each other because Avinash came to the set as Dara and he left as Dara I also saw his perspective of Dara during scenes and realised that I have to mould my own perception of the character to his The greatest thing of our relationship as actordirector was that we were really receptive of each otherrsquos thoughts and opinionsAT What an actor really needs is a safe environment where he is able to express freely without any inhibitions and that is what I experienced while working with Shujaat Sir We all experienced complete liberation to go on set and express ourselves as artistes while workingHow did you manage to showcase the Bombay of the 60rsquos in current MumbaiSS It made me want to jump off a cliff Creating a world of that era and portraying it is an exciting task but it was extremely difficult for logistical reasons Since it is a period thriller setting up sets from that era was a task considering Mumbai is so developed nowWe shot down two structures and reconstructed another mammoth set Thankfully it was recent past so we conducted research and took references from archived photographs of Raghu Rai and other photographers