WHERE IS HEAVEN?

Nitya Mehra, Executive Producer and Director of Made in Heaven, making waves on Amazon Prime, in conversation with Rtn. Sherebanu Baldiwala and Rtn. Abhinav Aggarwal

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Bombay. Congratulations on the stupendous success of Made in Heaven.

Thank you very much. When you create something, you want people to watch it but you don’t know how it will do well. Will people be able to translate or get the subtext, or the backdrop, will they get the costume, will they get every detail that you have done? The beauty of doing a series is that it has a much longer lifespan. While we have already got a good response, I also want to see how it pans out internationally because that takes time.

In each episode, the wedding planners Tara and Karan enter the life of a different bride and groom and slowly their story begins to unfold. How did you come up with this concept? Do you believe marriages are made in heaven or are they more likely born out of convenience?
Firstly, we will have to figure whether there is a heaven. In terms of creation, I will take that question in three parts. I created this with Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti who came to Delhi for two weeks, stayed with me and attended weddings. We were talking about how amazing it would be to make something on weddings. Coincidentally, Amazon wanted to make something on Indian weddings. And, we thought it was a great opportunity because we also wanted to separate ourselves from the regular wedding films.

The credit also goes to Zoya and Reema and our writer Alankrita. We picked up on topics that we have witnessed via other people’s stories. Everything that you see on the show is something we have read or which has happened with people that we know. It is just that we do not talk about it. We talk politics and so many other things but we do not
talk about these things that are happening everyday.

Are marriages made in heaven? I have been married for four years and I am still figuring it out. As for where is heaven – definitely not in Bombay!

Set in Delhi, Made in Heaven appeals to urban sensibilities. But has it also reached rural areas?
I don’t think so but I hope that people will download it from somewhere and watch it. We have not made this show for a niche audience. The characters are set in Delhi and I am from Delhi. I was very excited to do this show in Delhi because, first of all, Delhi knows how to throw good weddings – it is the Punjabi culture. You have space, you have locations and they like to do at least 10 functions.

Also, the fashion sense, from jewellery to clothes, it’s a juxtaposition like the outfits of Tara.
Honestly, I always say that Delhi is a beautiful hub of culture which people don’t believe. Culturally, everything that is in Bombay, whether it is music or art, gets Bollywoodised. I am Bollywood so I am not saying anything about that but there is a very Indie scene in Delhi. In terms of fashion also, Delhi is incredible.

We do not want to show only the dark side of weddings, we also want to celebrate Indian weddings in the way our society does. And, of course, to show the obsession with being married.

Made in Heaven has consciously brought homosexuality to the forefront, with one of the leads being openly gay. How did the idea of gay sex come about in a series that celebrates marriages in a country where homosexuality was a crime until recently and where homosexual marriages continue to be illegal?
We never really set out to deliberately create a homosexual character. This platform (Amazon) liberates you because there is no censorship. We wanted to see how society looks at homosexuality and the repercussions that has on the person who is homosexual. We wanted Karan to be as regular as anybody, not someone who is overtly homosexual. We wanted to show his life in the way we wanted to see it. We have so much appreciation for his character, the actor and the arc that Karan Mehra goes through. I am so happy that we have a Supreme Court that has passed this ruling. It was the most archaic law to have ever existed. I want to personally apologise to all the homosexuals for the country we live in. We, as a society, talk about it amongst our friends and our children. Finally, there will come a stage where
there will be no difference between the treatment of a homosexual person and heterosexual person.

You have big, versatile directors and a large team from very different genres; how do you work with such large teams?
On this, I share credit for executive producing with Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, who I have known and partnered with before and I have assisted them, so that is not a problem – it was easy. Zoya, Reema and I had never worked with each other but when you are doing a series – nine episodes, 50 minutes each – it is a lot of content for one person to create. It is like doing three feature films. Zoya directed two episodes, I show-ran everything and directed three episodes; we got other directors on board as well like Prashant and Alankrita. The collaboration was nice because, on a film, you would never get to collaborate with so many people. I found it very exciting because if you find people who have the same aesthetics and politics as you then it is fun. It is always good to work with like eminded people.

Do you have a favourite episode?
I am just so sick because I’ve seen a hundred edits of each episode. People tell me it is so amazing and I am like,
‘ok, but I don’t feel like that anymore’.

My favourite scene is when Tara breaks her house.
I think Tara has one of the best-written story arcs that I have read in a very long time. It is like an onion, you peel it off and there are further layers to it.

The characterisation was amazing.
We wanted to use the theme of insiders and outsiders. As a people, whether it is money or class, you want more so that you can be part of something else. This theme of inside and outside helped us cross the class system that exists in India. She lives on the other side of the tracks but she’s groomed to believe you can change your destiny if you marry a rich. Unfortunately, that is true and so sad.

But your statement contradicts the end when she realises that her sister who is on the other side of the railway tracks is perhaps happier than her.
And which is why it is the journey. She is groomed to believe that but once she is on the inside she is actually more of an outsider. We are filmmakers, we can manipulate emotions, so we can take a character anywhere. In real life, people take very long to reach a certain realisation; we took nine episodes.

The big fat Indian wedding is getting bigger and fatter, thoughts?
Nobody knows how to celebrate better than Indians. But what I don’t like is that there is an obsession about getting married – from the time that you are young, you could be sent to the best school and get the best education, and it does not matter what economic strata you come from. It is ingrained in us from our grandparents to our parents, to us. Weddings are all about showmanship. It could be a peon who has Rs two lakh to spend but ends up spending Rs 10 lakh – this is something that transcends class. I always wonder why there is so much showmanship? I am Punjabi, I had a wedding that lasted seven days and it became so many more things than the couple itself. That is what irritates me but it is also very beautiful. It is a party that India does very nicely.

What happens next? Will it continue to be based in Delhi?
Honestly speaking, we don’t know what is happening right now, everyone is very excited because the show has done very well so far. We have also got some hate mails but never mind. Someone asked me, “Do you hate marriages? There isn’t a single happy story. I have three daughters, what kind of examples are you setting?” I was so apologetic. I am a very happily married person, I didn’t mean to offend anyone.

Would you like to share something about the film script you are working on?
I am working on a film script on love and loss that is very difficult to write. It is a little bit about grief. I want to do film, I love cinema. It has always been my first love. But it is a great time for storytellers because we have such great platforms; we have cinema, we have these new media platforms, so I am developing two scripts for features. I have also just begun another series There is so much content because now you have these platforms and so everyone is watching series from around the world – be it in German or English. So, you have to try and break through the clutter and make something extraordinary. Or, at least try.

Every episode has a message, is that intentional?
Yeah! We felt we needed the voiceover in the end to tie everything up. We have the main characters who have six different stories going on, plus we have each family. So we felt the need to clarify the message at the end of the day. It is delivered from a voyeuristic point of view – by Kabir, the videographer. I felt it was nice to have someone from the outside because we did not want to leave too many loose ends.

 
AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

How do you determine the success of your show on platforms like Amazon or Netflix?
The first is when you get commissioned for Season 2. Secondly, we are very happy that we do not have to pander to the box office – it is a huge relief.

Is there any way of judging how many people are watching?
There is no way as of now. But one knows with the buzz around. There are so many people calling and reaching out to us, especially when they start talking about the depth of the show which means that they are interested.

Is there a certain demographic that you created this show for? Because I watch the show as well as my granny
and we discuss it in schools as well.
No! Very often, while writing we would ask ourselves, who are we writing this for, who is going to watch it? We were talking about a lot of drama, it is not one of those action-packed series which get a lot of viewers. This is a slower drama talking about issues like homosexuality. So, no, we did not have a demography in mind while writing it. But it is 60 per cent in English as we wanted to keep it real. Shoaib is a character like me or you and we tend to speak English.

The show is great! I hope you are making a lot of money.
No, that is the other thing. When a film makes money, you tend to get it from the producers but this is a one-time
sale to Amazon.