Two years ago, writer and director Rahul Pandey’s first show as a director Nirmal Pathak Ki Ghar Wapsi got appreciation from the audience for capturing the essence of small-town India in a heartwarming manner. Now, it is his quirky courtroom drama Maamla Legal Hai, set in a fictional district court in East Delhi, which is trending on the number one spot on Netflix. Starring Ravi Kishan as an ambitious lawyer VD Tyagi as well as Yashwant Sharma, Anant Joshi, Nidhi Bisht, Naila Grewal and Tanvi Azmi, among others, the light-hearted series explores the world of lawyers and courtrooms. Excerpts from a conversation with the director:
What was the starting point for Maamla Legal Hai?
The idea came from the writers Saurabh Khanna and Kumar Aneja. They had done all the research for it. The idea was to show how lawyers work and show the different scenarios that occur inside a courtroom, but to capture it in a fun way.
You have set it in a fictional court in East Delhi. How did the location play a role in the show?
This show could have been set in any district court in India because almost all courts have a similar environment. We also wanted to be sage in terms of legalities and not name any real court, lawyers or cases. Choosing Delhi as the location was a creative choice. I find their language and culture really interesting. The Punjabi Hindi they speak sounds fun and we knew we would get that Delhi vibe from there.
In a show such as this, it is very easy to make caricatures of the characters. How did you ensure that you strike the right balance between over-the-top and realism?
This was the very first thing that occurred to me after I read the script. Comedy is difficult anyway, especially when you want to decide which note you want to hit. I love David Dhawan comedies, Hrishikesh Mukherji comedies as well as Rajkumar Hirani’s films. Dibakar Bannerjee’s Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! is one of my all-time favourite films. A director decides what is the real world for him. I don’t like straying away from realism. Comedy is so tricky that if you make it too subtle, it will be too dull, and if you go a little above, it becomes too loud. If tomorrow, I have to choose between making a fun or realistic scenario, I would go with the latter. I will go with a lesser punchline but the show should appear real. You will see the realism even in the production design. The characters and the world should look real and believable. The humour of the situation will be captured but the characters have to behave like themselves.
Both the shows you have directed have a lived-in feel. How important is it to make the worlds seem authentic and what is your process for achieving that?It has a lot to do with the films I have watched growing up. Then there was a culture of literature in my home, and I am a writer as well. I like Harishankar Parsai’s humour and the worlds that writer Nirmal Verma has created. I like watching the world which David Dhawan creates which is extremely difficult but if you ask me to create it, it will not come naturally to me.
As for the process, I consider three things very strongly for any script. Firstly, creating the world of the show with enough research and workshops with the actors. Second, the production design and art work affects the world as well. The third is the treatment of the show which includes the editing, the background music and the kind of cuts in the show.
Our editor Shekhar Prajapati is brilliant and understands the comedy tone I like which has its filminess but does not stray too far from realism.
You have a diverse bunch of actors here. Can you tell us about the process of casting the actors, especially Ravi Kishen as the ambitious lawyer VD Tyagi?
We had considered a few more names for VD Tyagi’s character but I had seen Raviji in Mukkabaaz and in Mani Ratnam’s Raavan and even in Shyam Benegal’s films. He can play a range of characters. For Tyagi, we were looking for someone who has naughtiness in his eyes and can elicit laughter with just a look or with a subtle one-liner. He is extremely funny in real life as well. His sense of humour is desi and relatable and that combination works really well.
The casting director Vaibhav Vishant did a great job with casting the rest of the actors as well, even if they were there for a scene or two. We had to create that world and only the characters could make you believe in that.
You come from a background of writing for television before directing your first show for the digital space with Nirmal Pathak… and now Maamla Legal Hai. Tell us a bit about how that happened?
I wanted to write for films and initially, I was working with some film scripts but then the kind of films I wanted to make were not happening. In order to survive, I took up television and got my first show as an independent writer with Khwaabon Ki Zameen Par with Zee Zindagi which was in a realistic space. I did a few more television shows and it taught me the value of discipline. It is like a riyaaz to get up every day and write, even if you are not in the best mood but even that teaches you a lot. Then I wrote the dialogues for the Hindi version of R Madhavan’s Rocketry. I am glad I met the producers of Nirmal Pathak who asked me what I wanted to do and that led to me directing the show. Panchayat had been released around the same time and people were looking for real Indian stories.
What’s next on the horizon?
There are two or three projects in the pipeline and some talks for films.
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