In the middle of all the assembly-line content that the audience is constantly bombarded with, Black White & Gray, a series that experiments with both substance and style, has come in for huge praise. We caught up with director and co-creator Pushkar Sunil Mahabal on his inventive show, streaming on SonyLIV.
Black White & Gray has been a clutter-breaker and created much chatter ever since it dropped. I am sure you were aware that you were making something different, but did you expect the kind of reactions you have got so far?
Honestly, I didn’t think there would be any negative reviews (smiles). But yes, I didn’t expect this level of reaction from viewers. I have been getting calls from so many people about the format and the way it was executed.
So many producers and directors have asked me the same question: ‘How did they let you make this?!’ That is because in today’s creative climate where everything is done on an excel sheet and where what you make is dictated by algorithm, they are surprised that a series like this that doesn’t follow any of the tried-and-tested rules was greenlit. One can perhaps do something like this when you have invested your own money, but this is a commissioned show by SonyLIV. Everyone is asking me how did I pitch a show like this because it is very experimental. I can only say that I was lucky that I found the right people at the right time.
Saugata (Mukherjee, content head of SonyLIV) was there right from the first pitch to the final delivery of the show. He specifically told me: ‘Pushkar, you make the show you want to make. We will keep giving you feedback and suggestions, but I want you to make this one with complete conviction.’
Since this is such an experimental show, I believe you wrote the episodes and approached the network instead of just pitching in with an idea?
Yes, that is because I wouldn’t have been able to explain this as an idea. I knew that I would have to have the bound script ready. So I wrote all the six episodes and then approached them. Even now, I can’t explain the idea. The other day, my father asked me what it is about. I told him: ‘I can’t explain it. Please watch it!’ (Laughs)
What prompted this idea? I know that you are an avid true-crime fan...
I don’t get triggered by what works, I get triggered by what I want to watch. I watched a lot of documentaries during Covid, so much so that I know all the interviews of Jeffrey Dahmer by memory (smiles). I am in love with that format, but I knew that I didn’t have the right skills that one needs to make a real documentary. I thought that if I can’t make a real one, let me fake one! I decided to make a ‘fake documentary’, the kind that I wanted to watch as a viewer. There was no structure when I started writing it. I wrote the first episode, narrated it to Hemal sir (Hemal Thakker), the producer, and he gave me the validation that this is something different. I kept writing and every 10 days, we would meet virtually and I would narrate it to the producer and to my DoP (director of photography) Saee Bhope. By the time I got to the final episode, I realised I had something worthwhile.
In terms of form and style, were there any immediate inspirations?
My inspiration was crime documentaries, in general. But the two documentaries which kind of triggered me into making this were Don’t F**K with Cats and Night Stalker. I decided I wanted to make something in the same vein, but one rooted in India and socially relevant to our setup.
Talking heads to the dramatisation of the crime — Black, White & Gray has all the ingredients of a true-crime series but isn’t one in many ways. Was it tough to be a fan of the genre but also upend it?
When you are passionately in love with a genre, you don’t even have to design it. It comes naturally. Because I have seen so many (talking heads) interviews, I know how the interviewee must talk, how the performances need to be... in that sense, I didn’t have to do any research or refer to any particular show. It organically came in because of my familiarity with the genre.
The writing aspect was a challenge. In fact, what was most difficult for me was the romance (between the ‘Boy’, played by Mayur More, and the ‘Girl’, played by Palak Jaiswal). I didn’t know how to pull it off because romance is not my genre. As a writer, I was attempting it for the first time, I had never even written scrap notes on romance! (Laughs) That is my weakest area.
But the show does not have a love story in the conventional sense...
Yes. But I was always apprehensive that I had overthought it so much, I would overdo it. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened. I was more confident about the action and thrill bits, maybe sometimes a little overconfident (smiles). Eventually, it all worked out.
What went into casting the actors of both the dramatic enactment of the crime as well as those narrating it?
In the script, we named the boy played by Mayur (More) as ‘the boy’ and the guy giving the interview was called ‘the real boy’. Casting the fiction actors — led by Mayur and Palak — was comparatively easier... we just had to look for the right faces and the right kind of actors because it is very performance-heavy. Mayur is a skilled actor and I knew he would pull it off. Palak, being a debutant, surprised me. I am very happy with what she has done.
As far as the non-fiction casting is concerned, it was tricky because I realised that for some characters, I need extremely trained actors, and for some, I needed non-actors. We came up with a mix. For example, Vinod Wanikar, who plays the real Rao (a bounty hunter, played by Deven Bhojani in the dramatised version) is a non-actor, he had never acted before. The ‘real boy’ is played by Sanjay Kumar Sahu who is a trained actor from FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) and an acting coach himself.
Not only was the audition process different, we never gave them lines while shooting. I wrote the lines in English and told the actors: ‘Translate the lines in your head and we will go for a take.’ In that way, I got the fumbles, mumbles and actors fishing around for words, which I wanted, and which I have organically retained in the series.
Why did you not want to name the boy and girl?
It was important not to name them because I have seen that you want to do something else with that content, but the conversation becomes about something else. If I had named them, people would have taken it in a completely wrong context. Honestly, even in my head, even in my backstories, I don’t know what their real names are... I don’t know which group or community they come from. I didn’t want to get into that part at all because that is not the point of the show. One thing I wanted to do which I couldn’t was that I wanted the guy to call her by her name in a scene, but I wanted to bleep it out. But we didn’t do it. Maybe next time.
But even by not naming them, you have made a comment on the disparity in their socio-economic status and possibly the difference in caste, given that his father works as a driver for her father, who is a powerful politician...
Exactly! And that is the only point that we wanted to make. We got the message across by not naming them, but by showing where they come from. The idea was to keep it subtle but impactful.
Why did you never put Daniel Grey, the one filming the documentary/mockumentary, in front of the camera even once?
That was by design. Daniel Grey is not the hero of the show, he is the medium. Even though he is the only one the real boy trusts with his story, you will realise that Daniel Grey also leans towards a certain side... we all do. That is the point of the show... that everyone has their own agenda, leanings and ideologies. It may be a cynical way to look at things but I think this is how the world is like now.
The ending is a shocker because it forces the viewer to rethink everything that we have believed in in the last six episodes. Was that always the ending that you wanted?
Yes. That is because in most true-crime cases — especially the ones in the last five-10 years — we will never know for sure what exactly happened. That is the way it is and there have been many documentaries and films made on this. You give into an assumption that this is what has happened, but you will never know for sure. I never wanted to give a resolution, I just wanted the audience to understand how crime works.