How Indoo Ki Jawaani got made

Abir Sengupta directs his first Hindi film Indoo Ki Jawaani, starring Kiara Advani, which releases on December 11.But it’s really not easy for a Ranchi native with no connections in the film industry to turn director in Bollywood. “You hustle when you come from a different city and have that hunger to work.”

How did Indoo Ki Jawaani happen?

I knew Ryan Stephen, one of the producers of Indoo Ki Jawaani.

He used to work with Dharma Productions and I used to pitch him my scripts.

We had a great bond, but not a single script materialised.

One day I was sitting in a cafe and he happened to be there.

I had just finished writing the script of Indoo Ki Jawaani.

He asked what it was about and I gave him one-liner.

He loved it so much that he asked for a full narration.

I narrated the film to him and Niranjan Iyengar, his partner, a couple of days later and they really liked it.

They asked me whether I would like to take it to Emmay Entertainment, Nikkhil Advani’s production house.

Monisha (Advani) liked the script, and she said, if Madhu (Bhojwani) and Nikkhil like it, we would like to collaborate on this script.

Within 10 days, another narration was fixed and all of them liked the script.

Immediately, things started happening.

How did you get your cast in place?

We were discussing and Ryan suggested Kiara. That’s how we approached her and got her on board.

The rest of the cast just followed.

Where did you shoot the film?

I shot the film mostly in Lucknow.

Then, in Mumbai for five days.

What is Indoo Ki Jawaani about?

It’s a coming-of-age story.

It’s about a young girl from Ghaziabad, who goes on a dating app and does a right swipe.

You did a short film, SoulsathI. How did that idea come about?

My business partner was meeting a lot of guys through matrimonial Web sites because she was looking at getting married.