Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani makes his digital debut with Pritam and Pedro, which the maker of films like Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots and PK produces with longtime collaborator Arshad Warsi in the lead. Set in Goa, Arshad plays an old-school cop named Pedro, who teams up with a young hacker named Pritam — Hirani’s son Vir makes his screen acting debut — to bring down a cybercrime kingpin, played by Vikrant Massey. Paatal Lok and School of Lies director Avinash Arun directs the six-episode series that drops on JioHotstar on July 3.

Recently, t2 caught up for a long, freewheeling chat with Rajkumar Hirani, Arshad Warsi and Avinash Arun at Mumbai’s Taj Lands End on Pritam and Pedro and much more.

My introduction to Rajkumar Hirani was way before he became an actor, and that was when he starred in that iconic Fevicol ad in the early 1990s. Arshad, do you remember him in that ad?

Arshad Warsi: Yes, we all remember that. I also can recall him on the sets of the first Munna Bhai film (Munna Bhai MBBS, 2003) where he would act out the parts and show it to all the actors. He would even enact the girls’ roles!

Have you never aspired to be an actor?

Rajkumar Hirani: No, no, no! Very early in life, I realised that I am not a good actor. Also, initially, as a director, I started telling my actors what to do, but I quickly realised that was a mistake too. The director should allow the actor to interpret the character. Then only the actor is able to bring in his or her own flavour.

What kind of director was Avinash Arun on the sets of Pritam and Pedro?

Hirani: He is the calmest director I have ever met. It has been a long time since I met a director like him.
Arshad: He never yells, and he gives you freedom to do what you want, which is very rare. He lets an actor perform and corrects us where he needs to... just a little nip and tuck, which is how it should happen. Otherwise, there is no point in taking an actor when you’re going to call him and make him do something else altogether.
Hirani: I strongly believe that actors are extremely intelligent. Cinema comes from collaborative strength. You are not a painter doing it alone. As a director, you need to feed off your actors, your music director, your DoP (director of photography).... With maturity, you realise that they bring so much to the table.

I don’t know whether Arshad remembers this, but I learnt something from him on the first day of the shoot of Munna Bhai MBBS. As Circuit, he had to open the door and walk in and kidnap a character and take him to the exam centre. I had written that script for years, and I could see it in front of my eyes. In that scene, Arshad opened the door and burst into his traditional laugh. I went up to him and told him to tone it down. But Arshad started laughing at the preconceived notions that I came in with and even I realised that what he was attempting to do as an actor was interesting. The more films I have made, the more mature I have become in that aspect.

What spurred the idea of Pritam and Pedro?

Hirani: I have nurtured this story for a while. Harish Baijal, who was the head of the cybercrime department, called me during the pandemic and said a lot of cybercrimes were happening in the city. He needed someone to make short films to raise awareness. I told him we would do it in animation form. I wrote some scripts and we made it.

Then Baijal said that there is a man who has some very interesting stories about cybercrime. He wanted me to hear the stories over the phone and I find that very boring. So I started avoiding him! But he put me on a conference call with him and Amit (Dubey, cybersecurity expert) started narrating a story about a cybercrime at an ATM. He also sent me some interesting short stories he had written. I realised this can’t be a film but we could make a series. We created the characters of a cop and a hacker and that is how we got rolling.

Avinash, given the intense, dark projects you have made so far, were you surprised with the offer to direct Pritam and Pedro?

Avinash Arun: I was very happy when I got a call for this because who wouldn’t want to be part of Rajkumar Hirani’s world? I was always fascinated by his filmmaking style.
Hirani: I had always admired him as a DoP and then I watched his work as a director in Paatal Lok and Three of Us. With Pritam and Pedro, I wasn’t sure whether he would be willing to do it. But he spent a day reading the script and immediately said that he wanted to do it. He got into the thick of things very quickly and I knew that he would shoot the show very well. It was a very smooth shoot.

Arshad, did you get to go to Goa for this shoot? Otherwise, it has always been Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad for you, doubling as Goa in Rohit Shetty’s films...

Arshad: We shot it in Goa... thank God for that! I like Goa. And it is always nice to shoot a project in the place it is set. I enjoyed being there. It is so peaceful. The moment you get there, your heart rate slows down, everything slows down. In Bombay, by the time you beat the traffic and get to work, you are exhausted. In Goa, your entire worldview changes.
Avinash: Visually, it was a treat. The sea lent so much character. And Goa has culture and so many colours texturally. It really helped the cinematographer in me.

Arshad, you have always said how happy you are chilling on your couch at home. You have back-to-back releases — Welcome to the Jungle, Pritam and Pedro and Dhamaal 4 — in June and July. No rest for the wicked this time for sure!

Arshad: I like my couch because I don’t get a chance to sit on it! When I am working, I am really working. When I am not working, I really don’t like to do anything! Doing nothing is meditation for me. But I have been working quite a bit lately. There are many releases coming up till the middle of next year.

You have played a policeman quite a few times before, most memorably in Seher. What was it like to play a comic, technology-handicapped cop in Pritam and Pedro?

Arshad: Yes, I have played a cop three or four times before and they have all been very different from one another. Seher (2005), of course, was the most realistic one. Pedro is the most likeable one. I love the way he loves his job, his sensibility... he is old school and he has the most unusual way of getting things done. The audience will enjoy watching him because he is so flawed. Everyone loves Circuit in Munna Bhai because he is flawed. Goody-two-shoes characters are boring.

How are you with technology in real life?

Hirani: I love technology. I am constantly exploring. In fact, I have made a 10-minute AI film just to learn the technology. But if you ask Vir (son), he will think I am old school! (Laughs)

There might be certain things which we are fixated on in terms of old ideas. But emotions don’t really age. Pain is pain, no matter how old you are. But yes, now when I write a story, I need to think slightly differently. Earlier, it was easy to dig from one’s own experiences and memories and say, this is how a student of that era would behave. But now, when you start writing, you have to keep wondering whether today’s kids would behave in a certain way. You have to mingle with these guys to know how things happen.
Arshad: I enjoy it, but I am not very tech-savvy. I need to be more like Raju. I need to really get into it, which I want to. The desire is there to learn as much as possible, but I am not doing it, and that is the sad part.

You aren’t learning from your children?

Arshad: My children (Zeke and Zene) barely talk to me! (Laughs) The problem with kids today is that they are stuck in their rooms. They are tech-savvy, but I have no clue! The other day, my son got into a car and he started fiddling with all the parts and he knew so much! I was clueless! I only know the brake, steering wheel, clutch and accelerator in a car! (Laughs) I can barely even switch on the radio in my car.
Avinash: I am not tech-savvy. My cameras are the only machines I know to operate well.

Have you heard about any cybercrime stories which made you realise that truth is stranger than fiction?

Arshad: Cybercrime is very much out there, loud and dangerous. The kind of stuff that is going on on the Internet is very scary. Akshay’s (Kumar) daughter (Nitara) also had a stranger behaving badly with her on the Internet. She told her dad about it and Akshay had the guy caught. No one is immune to it. Crime has changed, criminals have changed....
Hirani: One crazy story that Amit told me was about a man who complained at the police station that his girlfriend was missing. The police found out that she was not his girlfriend... it was just someone he had met a few times on a dating site. They were supposed to meet at a restaurant. She told him that she was running late and asked him to order a ton of stuff. She kept saying she was reaching and then her phone switched off and she vanished. The man had to pay the entire bill, which was a lot. She did the same another day and vanished again. Later, it was discovered that the restaurant had a marketing agency which they were using as a dating site. They would use them to bring unsuspecting people on a date that never happened and then made up cough up a huge bill.
Arshad: AI scares me...
Hirani: See, you can’t fight AI... so you might as well embrace it. One may as well use it ethically. My dad used to sell typewriters and he thought he would always be in business. Within one year of computers coming in, he had to shut down. He couldn’t adapt. AI is far bigger than anything that has come before in terms of technology. One has to, of course, build rules and regulations around it. You can regulate it, but you can’t stop it.
Arshad: I think there are apps now which tell you what is fake and what isn’t. So that is a good thing.

Arshad, you were directed by debutant Aryan Khan in The Ba***ds of Bollywood last year. What was your biggest learning from working with Vir, also a debutant, in this series?

Arshad: I don’t know whether it is about an entire generation.... it differs from person to person. I feel Vir is quite mature... there is an old Vir in him. He talks differently; he is respectful and also very cool. He is a good mix of everything. He will probably do a bunch of stupid things with his friends, but he behaves in a totally different manner with his dad’s friends. I see that in some Gen-Z kids, but in most of them I don’t. That doesn’t make them bad... it is absolutely fine.

Was Vir always the first choice to play Pritam?

Hirani: He was never supposed to. The series was being developed while he was still studying and we were looking for other actors to play the part. Then Avinash pointed out that there had to be a 10-year age gap between Pritam and Pedro. We needed a young hacker. The casting process had been going on for a long time and Vir had just come back from drama school. He told someone in my office: “I have studied acting, I know how to play characters... why is no one looking at me?!” (Laughs) I spoke to him and said that I am not directing the series and I had always thought of writing a film for him. But he wanted to try and so we auditioned him. I told him that Avinash is the director and I can’t force him to take him. But Avinash was pretty convinced. In the meantime, Vir did a play with Feroz Abbas Khan and we thought he would be a good fit for Pritam and Pedro.

Having known and worked together for so many years, is there anything that you would like to share about each other that the world doesn’t know?

Hirani: Arshad has a wicked sense of humour. It is, of course, evident in his films, but it is much more than that. Whenever we meet, it is a party. In fact, Vir thinks that Arshad and I are very alike.
Arshad: Raju is quite an open book. He has no secrets, but I did make him do something in Goa that he hasn’t done before. I have a house and a pickup truck in Goa. We both sat in the back of the truck and kept it open. We drove all around Goa with the breeze hitting our faces. He was so relaxed, I have hardly ever seen him like that. That day showed me a different side of Raju.
Hirani: The shoot had wrapped up very late and we took off after that. He took me from one place to another and we kept hopping in and out of the truck. That day I saw Goa in a very different way.

You must have had some great meals at Arshad’s home...

Raju: Yes, Maria (Goretti, Arshad’s wife) is a great cook. They have some great Christmas parties. I also had some amazing food at his place in Goa. Right now, I am salivating even thinking about it!
Arshad: We have celebrated a couple of New Years together. For the sake of that, I think we will make another Pritam and Pedro. Kuch nahin, toh ek saath mil ke barbeque karenge!

The last good film you watched?

Hirani: I don’t end up watching much. In fact, I spend half the time looking through the platforms for something to watch, end up getting tired and fall asleep! Now I have decided that I am going to spend one day making a list of everything that I want to watch. The last film I watched in the theatre was Dhurandhar. I liked it.
Arshad: I just watched Maa Behen... it was a fun ride. Suresh Triveni (director) has a very evolved mind. Madhuri (Dixit) is my favourite... such fabulous acting.

I hardly go to theatres. And the last few months, I have been very busy. I recently watched a Chinese action film which was one of those slash-and- kill thrillers. I felt like I was in an operation theatre! (Laughs) But the action was very well choreographed. In one take, the man was “killing” 50 people... wow! And yes, Dhurandhar was a film I also enjoyed.

Name your favourite Rajkumar Hirani film and your most loved Arshad Warsi role at
t2@abp.in