Last year Suman Ghosh spent “happy sleepless nights” in Mahishadal, a town near Haldia, directing Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen, Rituparna Sengupta and Jisshu Sengupta for the film Basu Poribaar. And then in December he went to Jharkhand to soak in the sights and sounds. Months later, Suman, a Miami-based economics professor and filmmaker, is happy to share the deets of his first Hindi film Aadhaar, starring Vineet Kumar Singh and set in Jharkhand. 

What is Aadhaar about?

It is a story of the first person in Jharkhand who got the Aadhaar card. 

Why did you decide to make the film in Hindi?

I never had this ambition to make a Hindi film. My stories have been based in Bengal, which is why I have made Bengali films. Now this story was somehow based in Jharkhand. So it had to be in Hindi. 

How did Aadhaar happen? What is the backstory?

I have a few stories which I feel will have no takers in Bangla cinema… they have no market in Bengali cinema. However, I firmly believe that if you have good content and a good script, you will find a taker.

So I sent a lengthy synopsis of a story to the co-production market of the Busan International Film Festival. They receive many synopses of stories from across the world and they select 20 projects. And they arrange meetings with producers from all over the world. The director and the producer meet and then they can take it forward. 

My synopsis got selected in that international forum and I was invited over. This was in 2016. I went there… and a Hollywood-based production studio loved my synopsis. And then they wanted to buy the story rights of Aadhaar. They sent the contract to me; they were ready to pay a ridiculously high sum just for the story rights. But there was no guarantee that I would direct it. The contract did not mention it. 

Parallely, I was very curious about Drishyam Films. They were producing some amazing films like Newton and Masaan that were being feted across the world. Finally, I got in touch with Manish Mundra of Drishyam Films and had a meeting with him in Los Angeles. And after listening to the story from me, he said that Drishyam Films would produce Aadhaar. The content development started with him. He worked on the story with me. 

How did you decide on the cast?

Manish always insisted on not going for big names. He felt whoever was the best guy for the role should do it. Whoever fits into the role. Content is the king for them. I had seen films starring Vineet Kumar Singh. He is an Anurag Kashyap protege. And after watching Mukkabaaz, I was floored. He was unbelievable in it. The honesty and the truth of the character came through. So both of us (Manish and Suman) agreed that he is the right guy (to be cast as the protagonist of Aadhaar). Also, I had a lovely meeting with Saurabh Shukla. He is supposed to play a government official. We are yet to cast the woman who will play the protagonist’s wife. 

Amitosh Nagpal of Hindi Medium fame is writing the dialogues and Sirsha Ray is the cinematographer. Shantanu Moitra is composing the music. I’ll be shooting in Jharkhand in December and January. 

You went to Jharkhand in December last year...

To soak in the sights and sounds before directing the film. I stayed there for a month. I met many interesting people. I went there again in February and stayed there for a couple of weeks. I’ll be going to Jharkhand this week to do a technical recce, accompanied by Vineet and Sirsha. 

When did you meet Vineet?

I met Vineet in Bombay in May. He heard the narration from me. I also told him stories and showed him photographs from my recce in Jharkhand. Then he read the script and was on board. 

What triggered the story idea for Aadhaar?

A New Yorker article on the Aadhaar card. The seed of my story was formed then, in 2011. I wrote the story after my synopsis got selected in Busan in 2016. Aadhaar is a social satire. It is a snapshot of modern India and a story of a common man.