Exclusive: Guneet Monga calls her collaboration with Karan Johar for Kill and Gyaarah Gyaarah 'amazing and empowering.'

Oscar award-winning producer Guneet Monga recently spoke with MoneyControl about her upcoming thriller series Gyaarah Gyaarah, which will release on Zee5.

Guneet Monga, who is known for giving wonderful films like Lunchbox and Gangs of Wasseypur 1 and 2, loves to experiment with genres. Her last movies, Paglait on OTT and Kill with newcomers Lakshya and Raghav Juyal, are the talk of the town.

MoneyControl spoke with Guneet regarding her decision to produce a thriller cop drama and what makes Gyaarah Gyaarah different from other cop series released in the past.

Gyaarah Gyaarah, which will stream on Zee 5 from August 9, is jointly produced by Karan Johar and Guneet Monga's Sikhya. It has Raghav Juyal, Dhairya Karwa, and Kritika Kamra in the lead. The series is a thriller-cop drama.

Guneet spoke about what makes her excited about her work and how it is to work with Karan Johar. She calls her collaboration with Karan Johar and Dharma very 'empowering.'

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Karan Johar had presented the Irrfan Khan starrer Lunchbox (2013) in India, and the movie was loved by all. She, along with KJo, then next produced Kill, and now they are working together for Gyaarah Gyaarah, which is an official adaptation of the K drama 'Signal.'.

The series talks about what happens when a walkie-talkie misconnection between two cops occurs in different timelines and eras.

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Guneet also said what drew her to the idea of this series. Some excerpts from the interview:

On collaboration with Karan Johar and Dharma 

Guneet Monga: It's always really really amazing and empowering to collaborate with Karan (Johar) and Dharma. Everybody at Dharma. Our experience with Lunchbox was just fabulous because it was an independent film and Karan saw the potential in it and brought his magic in it and power behind it. It became what it became in India; we had shown it to the world, but in India, we didn't have the distribution right, and Karan was amazing to attach to it. So, yes, a decade later we have come out with Kill, and it is also an extreme action and first of its kind film. And it is amazing to work with Dharma, and now its Gyaarah Gyaarah, which is a mystery. So, I think it is a partnership of Cinephiles. We all love good stories. When it is an opportunity to work together and add each other's magic and power, that is what Dharma and Sikhya collaborate and do and create, which is genuinely empowering."

Karan Johar gives liberty 

In Kill, we had all the liberty. Karan always said to stay true to the genre. Getting that kind of love and mentorship is just precious. So it is a relationship I cherish. I hope through cinema we celebrate it forever.

Karan and I connect more as filmmakers

I think the story connection is very strong. A lot of trust and the faith are really strong that Dharma and Karan have in me and Sikhya. And both Lunchbox and Kill have been specials films. Extremely well watched the world around. And now we are waiting for Gyaarah Gyaarah. Yes, Dharma has definitely done romantic films, but I think the cinephile in Karan allows him to see the potential and mentor projects of all kinds of storytelling, which is, like I said previously, just amazing. Yes. I mean, I think the Punjabiness, I would say, would be the love for life and storytelling. But I think more as filmmakers, we do connect.

Why she produced Gyaarah Gyaarah

You watch Gyaarah Gyaarah to know why we fell in love with it. And, I think it's really good storytelling. It's a mystery thriller, and what happens is what I was trying to say here is that, you know, especially in the world of OTT, when you do a mystery thriller, it's more like the cliffhanger. Right? It's more like yeah. The consumer goes from one episode to the next and sees all 8 episodes, having a high completion rate because it's a mystery. So, this show is actually very interesting. It's procedural, and procedurals actually do very well. There is a legacy of procedural doing so well across TV.

So, this is a police procedural of the world of cops that is solving cases, cold cases. But, in this, there is a bit of an element of mystery. There is an element of thriller. And what happens to an audience mind is that once you're engaged with the crime, you know, in terms of storytelling, you either have figured out who the killer is or you want to find out. So, you want to get to the end of it. Right? And that is why you do, and that is why you do a procedural and you do a mystery. So, I just think this story was really exceptional to get into and bring to India. And that's how I got involved in it. And I've tried to make the best version of it. The rest, the audience will tell us.

Exploring different genres with Lunchbox, Gangs of Wasseypur 

Guneet: I think ever since I came to Bombay, I think, what, in 2007, and it's been a journey of finding stories to tell. So 2007 to now, it's been a journey of trying to learn to tell the best version of every story, like I said. So be it Lunchbox, be it Masaan, what we do is we try to do our best, and that is all in my hand. When I was pitching Paglait, I was telling people that this is a comedy and nobody believed me, you know. And they were like, Oh, this is about, you know, a widowand I was like, No, but this is a dark comedy, you know, because it's hilarious. She doesn't get to cry. You know, she doesn't feel like crying. Only when the film came out and people saw the satire of it understood. So it's always bending genres, you know? It's always figuring out the magic in otherwise a straightforward drama to tell. Like in Lunchbox, there was magic, and so was in my Masaan.

And I can tell you all of those, but I think it's just why I fall in love with the story and then just dive in and do a lot of work. I think that is a very underrepresented work of the producer. You know, people here don't really understand what a producer does. And the producer just tries to make the best version of the story.

Proud of all the movies I have presented 

Giving it all its legs and asking all the questions upfront, which are not, you know, dependent for later. So I'm glad that people are now joining dots of my career trajectory and saying, okay. You did, Lunchbox to, Gangs of Wasseypur to, Masaan to, Shaitaan to, Dasvidaniya. I mean, I'm proud of each of those titles, or even Elephant Whisperers or Kill, and even now Gyaarah Gyaarah. So, as I enter the world of series, 8 episodes, I'm just so glad to be collaborating with ZEE 5 for this opportunity and to be able to do this show at the scale that we have done. It is the biggest show for me so far. So I'm excited."

One message to independent filmmakers: keep creating. 

To independent cinema peep film folks, I would just always say, please, keep creating. I think we are our own roadblock. We stop. We overthink. We think this is not. Just keep creating, and as you keep doing, it will get better. You find your tribe double down on your tribe. Like, where she picked up a camera, went on, and found the Boman and Raghu Ka story, made a sizzle reel, and had sent a cold pitch to Netflix and to us at Sikhya. And that's how we became producers on Elephant Whispers. And Kartiki is an Oscar-winning director, you know, and this is her first film. So you know, the sky is the limit in more. There is so much to be done here. I would just say keep creating.

I've definitely been a part of a ton of independent films, a lot of first-time directors and actors, but it's special, and there's no shortcut to doing what we think and what we talk about. And it's not always so much the doing of it. We've crowdfunded films; we have done co-productions around the world. We have found presenters. We've, you know, found a tribe, and when you find a tribe, then double down on your tribe, and in the end, I would just say keep creating and everything works out.

Guneet Monga  is the producer of the 2023 Academy Award-winning documentary short film The Elephant Whisperers.