Raaj and DK’s (director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK) latest offering Farzi, which marked Shahid Kapoor’s OTT debut, is receiving appreciation from critics and audiences alike for its cast, story and theme. Revolving around counterfeiting in India, the thriller stars Shahid, Vijay Sethupathi, Kay Kay Menon, Bhuvan Arora, Raashi Khanna and Zakir Hussain.
The series also became a fad among netizens as it crossover with The Family Man (Raj and DK’s series with Manoj Bajpayee) officially established the detective universe of Raj and DK. However, in an exclusive chat with News18, the show’s writers Seeta Menon and Suman Kumar revealed that the creation of the multiverse was not a pre-planned plot but happened by chance.
During the interview, he also talked about the comparison of Fergie with the famous American show Breaking Bad.
Excerpts:
Are you overwhelmed with the response this series is getting?
flower : The amount of love we are getting is definitely overwhelming in a positive way. But you know how it’s right? People are already asking us about season two. Our baby is out now and we have received lots of love. But our eyes are already set on the next thing. We are looking forward to more seasons.
Shahid Kapoor was also seen in a comic role after a long time in this series. Was it an obvious choice?
Sita : The concept started long back as a feature film and Shahid had expressed interest at that time. but with many Bollywood Projects, we talk a lot and then sometimes things don’t go too well. When the lockdown happened, I believe Shahid was talking with Raj and DK and then asked about this project and said let’s go ahead and make it. At that point of time, we all decided to make it a series rather than a feature film because there is so much to write and explore in this world and one feature does not do justice to the subject. In fact, all four of us write with a very natural sense of humor and Shahid went into that part very naturally.
Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) and Gehlot (Zakir Hussain) were the other highlights of the series. Did Sethupathi’s star image or his popularity determine the kind of lines you were writing for him?
flower: Not really because we didn’t even know when we wrote this feature. When we wrote the first draft, we didn’t have an actor in mind. We were just writing for the character and the story. When Vijay and Zakir came on board, their chemistry enhanced what we had already written about. The script is nothing but an invitation to other artists to come and perform. But sometimes you have an actor in mind and you write for him and there is nothing wrong in that. For us, it was not.
Sita : When we wrote it, Michael’s character was named something else and he wasn’t even South Indian. After Vijay came into the picture, we tweaked it and he brought his Hindi and created a whole new Hindi vocabulary.
Sita, you have been working with Raj and DK for a long time. What would you say is the best thing about working with him and how has the bond evolved over the years?
Sita : All three of us started off as friends and the same applies for Suman. We all go back a long way. And Raj and DK are the ones who really pulled me into this world of film writing. I had nothing to do with it. I had one foot in my day job, which was being a journalist, and one foot in writing for film. I did that for about 10 years, and then finally got into screenwriting full-time.
The best thing about working with him is that he has groomed me. I know what they like, I know how they think and to a large extent, my views have been shaped by that. But it took me a long time to grow into my personality and I am glad that that voice is being recognized as well. That’s the freedom I get with Raj and DK. They are very open to ideas, open to all kinds of crazy ideas, and the more different those ideas, the more they are welcomed.
With the Raj and DK Spy Universe established, could we be getting a fake cameo in The Family Man Season 3?
flower : It would be criminally irresponsible of me to answer that question. So all I can say is we will wait and see. I’m contractually bound not to talk about it. I don’t think that if there is a cat in the bag then we should let the cat out of the bag. (laughs)
Creating a multiverse is no joke. Without going into too much detail, it was a fun one. My friends have sent me videos of their girlfriends or their partners beaming with joy when they heard Srikanth’s (Bajpayee) voice or when they saw Chellam sir (Uday Mahesh). In that, it served its purpose. I don’t want to speculate further on how it is and whether it will progress because everything depends on what the final narrative of season three is going to be.
So the decision to base The Family Man and Fergie in the same universe wasn’t planned?
Sita : No, it was not. This actually happened on the day of the shoot. We were shooting in the city where TASC (the fictional government agency in The Family Man series) has an office. Raj sees that street and is filled with happy memories of The Family Man. He said why don’t we pass Michael through this? And they started calling everyone from The Family Man to see who was available for the shoot.
Many people have compared the narrative structure of Fergie to that of Breaking Bad.
flower : You can say this about any story because there are only seven types of stories in the world. You can’t go beyond that so anyone is free to make their own opinion about it but the truth is you just have to watch the series to know.
Sita : let me put it this way. There are storytelling templates for these genres. For example, Breaking Bad was set around meth and Ours was set around counterfeiting. When you have these strange, untouched worlds, you have similarities. You’ll find yourself running the gamut of the fraudster, his friends, the gangsters, the politicians, the press – and you’ll be exposed to that entire ecosystem.
Upcoming Projects:
Sita : Right now, we are in the middle of production for Citadel India. It is a global detective poem created by the Russo brothers. Then there is Fake 2. There is also a feature film coming up privately, which is not entirely about spies or action or thriller.
flower: We have The Family Man 3 and then Fergie 2. I am also shooting for my directorial debut in Tamil. We have just completed one schedule and finally another feature film is about to start.
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