With Satyameva Jayate, John Abraham gave me a new career, new life: director Milap Zaveri-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Milap Zaveri is back at waging war against corruption with his second instalment of larger-than-life action-packed Satyameva Jayate. Close on the heels of Akshay Kumar-Ajay Devgan-Ranveer Singh’s Sooryavanshi, the John Abraham-starrer masala potboiler will hit theatres on 25 November. Once considered the sex comedy guy, Zaveri says he finds satisfaction in high-octane vigilante action dramas and that Satyameva Jayate is twice the action, patriotism. Excerpts from a chat with the director:

Heard that you got many offers from OTT to release Satyamev Jayate 2 but you stood your ground and kept pursuing the theatrical release. Now you must be very happy…

I have driven my producers up the wall in the last year. This film and all the films I make are made for cinemas. They are made for big-screen audiences. When the cinemas opened up in between, small films were released and people didn’t go back to the theatres. A lot of people kept saying that cinemas are finished and OTT is here but I used to scream myself hoarse saying that you all are wrong. I kept telling my producers Bhushan Kumar, Monisha Advani, and Nikhil Advani that guys let’s hold on till Sooryavanshi comes. I knew that the day Sooryavanshi enters cinema, we would need an army to stop people from entering theatres and I was right.

Once the pandemic is over and cinemas are allowed to open with full occupancy, people will come in large numbers. I was very sure that Rohit Shetty will not go for OTT and fortunately, my producers agreed. They saw the film right here in the theatre, John and Divya (Khosla, female lead) also saw it and they felt this film deserves to be on the big screen. Of course, there is risk, fear, and nervousness…Cinema is an exam, OTT is like you are passing without sitting in any examination. Here the audience decides to spend their hard-earned money and go to a theatre and watch the film. As a filmmaker this is what you live for…failure, success… I have seen it all.

You seem to have followed the same concept of John Abraham versus John Abraham like in the first instalment with one battling crime and the other breaking law…What is your personal belief?

Part one was the story of two brothers, one who abides by the law and the other takes the law into his own hands. There is a similar structure in part two where Jay is a police officer who believes that the law has to be followed, whereas, Satya is a vigilante who feels that the only way to end corruption is to take the law into your own hands. There is a clash between the two ideologies and when you see the film you will realise the twists and turns in that confrontation. Also, part two is twice the action and patriotism.

I believe that when the law cannot provide justice, you take the law into your hands. When the police officer in Hyderabad shot the rapist, I applauded, I clapped and saluted those police officers. I feel that when people get away with things, they do injustice to women, to the down-trodden, spread Hindi-Muslim communal tension, etc., and if the law with the loop-holes is unable to solve the situation at that moment, you need someone to take action, and if someone is strong enough to do that, then why not?

Do you have plans to take forward your franchise and release many more parts while tackling different issues of corruption?

The day Satyamev Jayate One was released on 15 August, 2018 and it did well, the same night we decided to make part two. John was busy for a year shooting other commitments, so I made Marjavaan in between but I had decided that Satyamev Jayate is a brand that tackles corruption. Part One tackled corruption in the police force and part two takes on a larger issue of corruption in every sphere of the society, whether it is the police force, or politics, or medical fraternity, or industrialist…even to the level of babu in the government office and how he harasses people who come to get their work done, it takes up all of that. If part two works well, I will gladly make part three, I already have an idea for that. I have bounced it off to John and he loved it. I would like to make films with John all my life, he is my saviour, he is the reason why I am sitting in front of you all. He gave me a new career, new life…

But why did you go from making sex comedies to angry, violent films?

I shifted to action because the audience didn’t show love to the comedies that I made, instead they showed violence and rage towards those films (laughs). But I have grown up on the films that I am currently making. Satyamev Jayate 2 is a tribute to Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, Mukul Anand, Subhash Ghai, Rakesh Roshan…I have grown up watching their films. My favourite films as a writer are the ones I did with Sanjay Gupta, whether it is Kaante, Musafir, or Shootout At Wadala or Mohit Suri’s Ek Villain.

The Mastis, the Housefulls, then Heyy Baby, and Main Tera Hero did great and I loved those as well but I would get real pleasure when I would see the audience whistling while watching Shootout At Wadala.

That is something else, it is a completely different feeling. I love action-heavy masala films. When Mastizaade failed and I didn’t have work, I made a short film called Raakh which got a lot of appreciation. It was a very angry, dark film, and the original idea for Satyamev Jayate was born out of that. John was kind enough to agree to do it. He decided my trajectory after that.

…and the dialogue-baazi remains…?

I am a dialogue writer first and then a director. Sometimes the dialogue writer in me overpowers the director in me. That is the cinema I have grown up on, if there is no dialogue-baazi and people don’t clap and whistle then there is no fun.

It is very interesting that you and your producer Nikhil Advani despite very different sensibilities collaborate well, so how does the collaboration work?

Yes, we are completely different when it comes to our sensibilities. You can call me the bad apple of the company (Emmay Entertainment). My films get trashed by the critics, whereas, Nikhil’s work gets four stars, five stars, everybody loves the films and shows that he makes. When his Mumbai Diaries got great reviews, I told him to enjoy this phase because I will be destroying your reputation in a few months (laughs). The same critics will abuse you and they would not want to see your face. We are the yin and yang of Emmay but to his credit he lets me make what I want to make. He sees my scenes and holds his head in disbelief. But I would like to say for all his pretense of being cool and intellectual he is the one who thought about John tearing the tyre and ripping it apart in part one. It was Nikhil Advani’s idea. I love him, I hate him, he loves me, he hates me but we can’t live without each other. He allows me to make the films that I want to make. He has made his peace with that. I will continue making this kind of cinema until this cinema works.

You have always said that bad reviews don’t bother you but what do you have to say when critics pan your film for exaggerated patriotism and even call it jingoistic? In the Satyamev Jayate 2 poster you have John Abraham tearing his uniform and you see the image of Hanuman, what are you trying to depict?

Who decides what is jingoistic and what is patriotic? Who decides Lagaan is patriotic while Gaddar is jingoistic? Who decides what is cool and what is not. For me, patriotism is anything that talks about the love for your country and your fellow country as well and you don’t discriminate between religions. You die for your country and kill if somebody harms your country. There is a dialogue in Satyamev Jayate 2: Sadak pe khada havaldar sau rupaye mein meherbaan hai, Naam tumhara Khan toh atankwadi pura khandaan hai, apne hi ghar mein pankhe se latak raha kisan hai, lekin mera desh mahaan…the film calls out what is wrong in the country. And for the first time in my career, a film of mine has been passed by the CBFC with a U/A certificate without any cuts, there is not a single cut that shows that it is not an overly jingoistic film. But yes, it wears its patriotism on its sleeve. When I thought of the concept of the poster, I said it’s Hanuman. Here John tears his uniform and India is at his heart. That is his character, it is a patriotic film.

Seema Sinha is a Mumbai-based mainstream entertainment journalist who has been covering Bollywood and television industry for over two decades. Her forte is candid tell-all interviews, news reporting and newsbreaks, investigative journalism and more. She believes in dismissing what is gossipy, casual, frivolous and fluff.

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