It’s a revenge story. So the name Badlapur fits fine. But to link it with the place called Badlapur and bring it into the film, isn’t that a bit forced?
I love films like Cape Fear (1991) and Road to Perdition (2002), where the titles are metaphorical. Perdition means damnation and destruction but it’s also a place. So is Cape Fear. Badla means revenge, yes, but it also means change. And Badlapur is a small town between Mumbai and Pune, where our film is set. I thought it was a fitting metaphor for Raghu’s (Varun Dhawan) state of mind.

The time transition of 15 years seemed a little sudden. Was at any point in the script or at the edit table a different choice made to show the time lapse?
In a regular revenge story, the hero would have broken into Liak’s (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) jail and perhaps kidnapped him and tortured him till he revealed the name of his partner and then killed them both. But that was not the point here. Raghu gets off at an isolated station and cuts himself from the world. He has no idea how he would take his revenge and then one day, many years later, he gets a chance.

The idea was to suddenly jump to 15 years later. The viewer is surprised and has to fill in the gap. I had the choice of showing a montage of his empty existence, but we didn’t think it was necessary. The transition had to have suddenness and sadness. My inspiration for the transition is a great sequence from Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (1984), where we see Robert De Niro enter a station and emerge an old man, many years later. Yesterday by the Beatles is playing on the soundtrack. That’s a classic worth checking out. 

The hammer is too Oldboy for comfort. Did you put it there as a deliberate tribute? But there’s Sholay being shown on TV as well...
I love Oldboy (2003) for sure, but the hammer was not a tribute. The hammer as a weapon simply seemed handy and efficient. I could have used a pair of scissors but that’s been done in Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder (1954). The Sholay transition was simply irresistible!

Raghu forcing himself on Jhimli to make Liak suffer and Raghu faking it with Koko to make Harman suffer... is he the same guy? Are the different methodologies because of the 15-year difference? Or is it that Raghu wasn’t physically interested in Koko?
Raghu didn’t plan to rape Jhimli (Huma Qureshi). He wanted information about the partner. And when she doesn’t provide him with that, he felt angry and frustrated. He wanted to hurt Liak and she was an instrument. With Harman (Vinay Pathak) and Koko (Radhika Apte), all Raghu wants is to destroy the conjugal bliss that they are sharing which he feels robbed of. He wants to destroy their marriage.

Let’s come to the most heated talking point around Badlapur — the beginning! Did you ever consider not showing at the start who of the two men killed Misha (Yami Gautam)? Did you ever consider not showing it at all?
We had fierce debates about this, but I was very clear. The viewer must know what happened. This is not a whodunnit or guessing game. The viewer knows that Liak is the culprit and hence hates Liak all the more when he lies. This is the reason for our title which includes the words: Don’t Miss the Beginning.

Varun seemed a little weak in the emotional scenes and the Nawaz scenes always bring the thunder back to Badlapur. Would you agree?
Varun nailed it as Raghu. I am proud of his performance. The scene where he is dancing alone in his shrine room makes my eyes moist every time I see it. And I’ve seen the movie a few times. Varun had the tougher role. Nawaz has the hero’s graph. Nawaz is a consummate actor and he has taken Liak on paper to another level.

Divya Dutta’s Shobha is a little too keen to help Liak and all too ready to get physical with Raghu. Isn’t she too convenient a character in a film where every character has such real graphs and natural motivations?
We did not want Shobha to fit the stereotype of an NGO worker in our films. She is a woman who believes she is helping both Liak and Raghu get out of their respective prisons. She happens to be a single mother and she happens to have a sexual drive which Raghu uses to his advantage.

It’s a great ending when Liak owns up to Harman’s murder and Raghu doesn’t know what to do about his revenge. But of everything we have seen of Liak, would he ever do something like that?
I think the film hinges on this point. If you believe that Liak can do this, the film has worked for you. Liak is a man of limited vocabulary, but that doesn’t mean he has limited sensitivity. Liak’s actions speak louder than words.

Pratim D. Gupta
What would you want to ask Sriram Raghavan about Badlapur? Tell t2@abp.in