"Forensic is not a remake, it’s an adaptation": Vikrant Massey

Vikrant Massey says he had to be mindful of details like the angle at which he held the UV torch in 'Forensic: The Truth Lies Within'. (Screen grab)

The Vikrant Massey and Radhika Apte-starrer, Forensic: The Truth Lies Within released on June 24. The taut investigative thriller is a Hindi remake of a Malayalam film by the same name. It has been directed by Vishal Furia. We caught up with Massey and Furia. Excerpts from the interviews:

When this film came my way, I saw the original...I immediately recognised the tremendous potential. Largely, it talks about forensic science and its involvement in the criminal justice system today... I felt that this film had potential not just to entertain the audience but also to inform and create a certain sense of intrigue about forensic science and how sophisticated it is.

Having Vishal Sir and Radhika (Apte), and having a subject which had tremendous potential to reach out to wider audiences, to Hindi speaking audiences, was among the reasons that I said yes to this film.

Forensic also gave me an opportunity to play something that I haven’t done before. And, I, as an audience also love whodunits. I love watching thrillers and it is a genre that really excites me visually. So I guess I was at the right place and at the right time for me to choose this film.

This is my first remake. I don't know how other people approach working on remakes, but our approach was quite clear because we saw Forensic as an adaptation. We knew that we did not want to copy-paste frame by frame. And we didn't want to re-make it by just changing the language and the geography of the film.

We sort of also came in with our own perspectives. As Vishal Sir said, largely the soul of the film and the premise of the film remain the same, but we brought in our own touch.

This (the Malayalam original) is a three-year-old film, so we have taken certain factual anecdotes from the society in general and from the world of crime, for the world of forensic science in the last two three years and inculcated all those things in our film.

So this film is an adaptation with the old soul remaining intact. There were actually no reference points for me. Vishal Sir was very clear from Day 1 that this is going to be a completely fresh perspective. He has brought in his own sensibilities to this film. I did not have to watch the Malayalam film to pick up a nuance or a trait.

The toughest part for me was justifying playing a forensic officer... It was tough to get the nuances and terminology right which were pretty complicated. Something as simple as ‘at what angle should the ultraviolet torch's light fall on the suspect’s fingerprint?’ These are the little things that I really had to look into... I am really glad that we had actual forensic officers from Delhi, especially Dr Ranjit, who was consulting with us all throughout our shoot.

A lot of people do not take up the kind of roles that I say yes to... My role in Haseen Dilruba was rejected by six other actors before it came to me. So the possibility of actors not wanting to attempt a certain role is something that really challenges me.

This is essentially a story of how forensic science is used to solve a case. How technology has improved over the years, and how even a nanogram of DNA can find the killer and also prove a suspected person innocent. Generally that is the forefront of the story. Vikrant’s character is the forensic expert and collaborates with Radhika, and she is the investigating police officer inspector. They investigate the case of young girls being killed on their birthday in Mussoorie. This is a nail-biting and gripping tale of who the killer is, and the suspects keep changing.

Ultimately, we all want our films released on big screens. Having said that, these are trying times and I don't know what the fate of a movie is going to be. So I would say that I am quite happy to have my films released on OTT platforms, and not have the pressure of box office numbers. I think box office numbers are the killer of good art forms and good cinema and good storytelling because smaller films get hidden when people don’t watch them and the numbers are less.

Every medium should co-exist. Theatres cannot go out of fashion because we have been watching films in theatres, in a community set-up, for more than 100 years now, so it has become a part of our DNA.

So while that medium will continue to exist, OTT definitely gives a lot of boost to content creation and it brings to the forefront topics which otherwise would never be made, because of the financial aspects of the theatre business and making of films.

A lot of my stuff has been on OTT. I feel it automatically gives us a wider audience... OTT helps films to reach a global and an international audience, and I think it is a boon for any filmmaker.

The birthday part of the story is an important event. It is about how the birth date triggers different events again and again.