EXCLUSIVE | Kanu Behl on his film 'Despatch': 'Manoj Bajpayee took the film to Ronnie Screwvala, it wouldn't have been possible without...'

Kanu Behl made the bone-chilling Titli back in 2015 and is now coming up with Despatch that was screened at MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024. It stars Manoj Bajpayee as a curious and conniving journalist that will go to any lengths to get his job done. And the actor approaches his role with just the right amount of restlessness he has mastered by now. It also stars Shahana Goswami, Mamik, and many other actors in crucial role.

It will be available on Zee5 soon but in an interview with Firstpost, the director spoke about casting Bajpayee for the role, the idea behind the film, and his one takeaway from the experience.

I saw the film at MAMI, and what I observed is that just like Titli, there is a lot of chaos happening in Despatch. How do you write, and then how do you film when you have to actu5ally shoot a chaotic situation in your movies?

I mean, writing is always the toughest part of the process. Writing is always geared towards having some sort of truth in what you’re writing and also trying to subvert as much of the plot and story as possible. Because, really, at the end of the day, you’re dealing with emotion, and the basic need that an audience has is to see people. And whether they need whether they know it or not, they’re there to see a certain time, a character in at a specific point of time in a specific space. And that is really the memory that an audience is left with.

So the story or what you’re seeing what the the narrative that you might be seeing, which might be at the forefront is really a lose for the world that you’re trying to build. So while you’re writing, you’re always trying to subvert the foreground and add as much depth to the background as possible. So, you know, in really simplistic terms, that’s the process of writing. Then in terms of shooting, I think, my process is always geared towards prepping the actors in such a way that they need they know their character as much as possible outside of the script.

Also, we would definitely talk about Manoj Bajpayee’s performance. But before, I want to ask you that between Pinjar and Gangs of Wasseypur, he was not getting the kind of roles that could actually justify his talent. And in these last 12 years, post Gangs, I think he’s yet to put a wrong foot forward. So what do you have to say about this resurrection of Manoj?

I mean, what can I say? How to add further to this conversation because, he is just a a  brilliant, brilliant actor, and I think not just as an actor, I think it says volumes about Manoj Bajpayee as a human being. I don’t think he comes at any character or he comes at his profession, what he does, with any form of ego. I mean, it’s an egoless man. He’s just in always in service of the film and the character that he’s playing. And that’s the strength of the man. That is what I think brings the consistency to his work because he reads the script probably, and I’m here.

I’m just trying to dive into his head and see probably what he thinks. But I think he just reads the script and sees whether he feels it’s honest or not. And once he does feel that it’s honest, I think his fidelity is towards film honesty eventually. He doesn’t walk on to the film just as an actor. He’s a complete collaborator. Ronnie and me met because of Manoj. It was Manoj who took the film to Ronnie. I don’t know what more to say about Ronnie Screwvala, but he stood by the film like a rock through thick and thin.

I don’t think it would have been this film without all the pillars that are there to support this film, whether it’s Manoj, whether it’s Ronnie, or whether it’s Zee5. It’s just all of us coming together to make sure that the film gets made, the way it should be made.

I want to talk about Manoj’s performance because as a journalist, he’s a thorough professional, and you actually root for him to break that story that can actually change his fortunes. But beyond his professional turf, he’s not a very likable character. He does not behave properly with his wife and neither with Prerna. So there is a certain sense of duality to his character that you have added.

Absolutely. I mean, I was always interested in this Faustian sort of portrayal for this character because so often, mostly we see films about the journalistic world where the journalist is almost like this hero that is trying to very altruistically break this story, for the greater good of the world.

But in real life, journalists are not just journalists. In fact, even in the film, I slightly differ with you, even Joy’s sort of moves as a journalist are kind of suspect for me. I don’t think he’s he’s this altruistic journalist. He’s doing what he’s doing only for his own career and and moving himself forward. I don’t want to reveal too much about the film, until it eventually comes out on Zee5. I mean, I slightly disagree there. I think he’s a complex character. There is duality in everything that he does in the film, and that is what basically interested me in writing this film in the first place because I wanted it to be a much more interesting complex portrait of not just a journalist, but a human being.

Also, at its heart, we see that the publication that Manoj is working for, digital is taking over print. But now in real life, as we see, digital also has extremely tough competitions from social media, from influencers coming in. So what do you see the future of journalism as?

I think journalism, the way it should be should and will survive wherever it does survive. Now you see so many of the journalists have moved to social media. And they are thriving in that space. I don’t know if they are thriving or not, but at least they’ve created a new space for themselves. And journalism is alive and well. And you see that people at large have also moved away from television. And a lot of people are now beginning to get their news on YouTube. I feel like the future is I mean, it’s really hard to go, crystal gazing in in that sense.

But I do feel like I remain hopeful, and I feel like the world keeps changing and shape shifting. And within that, all of us find our new spaces. And you can see that, journalists are trying to negotiate what’s happening and trying to create a new space for themselves. And if something happens to the current space, I’m sure we’ll find some other space to be able to express ourselves.

And lastly, what has been your one takeaway from THIS as a filmmaker?

At the end of the day, I want people to watch the film and think about what their own personal contribution is as an individual to the world that we are creating today. It’s so easy to blame the system or blame this unknown identity called the system. But I think one of the key reasons I chose to make this film was because I also wanted to delve into the personal and say, yes. There is this entity outside of us that might be doing what it’s doing. But at the end of the day, this big entity is made up of many singular smaller units, and those smaller singular units are us. So what is our contribution to the world that we are shaping today?

Working as an Entertainment journalist for over five years, covering stories, reporting, and interviewing various film personalities of the film industry see more