Q&A With Nitesh Tiwari

The director of Dangal on his new film Chhichhore which will be out later this month, his creative process, and what it’s like living at home with a wife who is also an acclaimed film director.

When Nitesh Tiwari made his first film Chillar Party (co-directed with Vikas Bahl) not much was known about him in Bollywood, although he was among the most well-known professionals from the advertising industry (he was the Creative Director at Leo Burnett). But with time, he solidified his stature and position. His second film was Bhoothnath Returns with Amitabh Bachchan and his third film Dangal is considered to be the highest-grossing Indian film in the world. This engineer turned-filmmaker was never always sure if he was a storyteller: he would act, he would write. But only when he was a student at IIT Mumbai, did the belief become stronger. The director-cum-writer (he’s written films like Nil Battey Sannata and Bareilly Ki Barfi to name a few) is now ready to showcase his fourth release as a director in Chhichhore, which stars Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor.

After the immense success of Dangal, was there a point wherein you were confused about what to make next?

Not really. We made Dangal purely out of love and without keeping the box oŠce outcome in mind. It was purely a product of passion. The box oŠce success reiterated our confidence in the subject that we were on the right path. It is the same thing for Chhichhore as well; my team and I have the same love and passion for this story too. It would be unrealistic to put the pressure on the success of Dangal on the next project as you need to look at each project individually and not go by what has happened in the past. Box oŠce is just the love of audience translated into a number and that is something which can never be predicted.

So how much time did it take you to finalize Chhichhore?