Berlin Interview: Director reveals how he got inspiration for Aparshakti-Ishwak starrer spy thriller

Indian filmmaker Atul Sabharwal recently directed a fast-paced spy thriller starring two amazing talents, Ishwak Singh and Aparshakti Khurana in a film that is set in the 90s. Sepia-toned New Delhi offered a beautiful canvas for the directorto weave a gripping world of lies and deceit and intense drama. The film was released on ZEE5 on September 13.

Atul Sabharwal spoke to WION exclusively about evoking a sense of nostalgia with Berlin, how he got the idea for the espionage thriller if he ever envisioned a different ending and more.

Here are the edited excerpts of our chat:

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Q: What is Berlin, the film for you?

A: It's a story of an underdog or two underdogs who try to wrestle with the powers that are much more powerful than them. One does it out of his curiosity and inquisitiveness and the other out of his value system where he feels that he needs to protect something. If you look at it, they are both motivated to try and protect the vulnerable. Pushkin tries to protect Ashok. Ashok tries to protect the woman.

Q: The film evokes a sense of nostalgia – the colour, tone, the way it’s been shot. If you could tell us a bit about that process?

A: The cinematography evolved from whatever the research guided us towards. We asked questions like what did the films of that era look like? What did the buildings look like? What was the costume? Once you have all the answers, you have to narrow down the choices because, in any given era, there is not one specific shade or palette of colour that people are wearing. People at any given point wear all kinds of things.

We asked which are the colours that will stay true to the period, but also stay true to the emotion. What are the camera angles or what are the camera movements? I mean, it's a little technical, but those are the decisions that one has to very consciously make.

Q: Most spy thrillers tend to be inspired by their predecessors. Berlin has that naive authenticity though. How did you write this film?

A: When I started writing it, I had a reference point of a character who was a waiter at a cafe, who was deaf-mute because the cafe employed deaf-mute staff. It was Costa Coffee in Lokhandwala, Mumbai. I met this peculiar, enthusiastic, bubbly, chirpy kind of person who would try and make a conversation with people who were visiting the cafe. This person tried making conversation even though he could only talk in sign language.

When I wrote this, I had no idea it could be made into a film because this was a non-commercial idea. That thought gave me the freedom to go all out. My characters kept evolving. I didn’t tie them up and let them go whichever way and direction they wanted to, whatever the story demanded.

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Q: Did you ever envision a different ending for Berlin?

A: No, this was the ending always. It would be slightly unreal to show that these two people found victory against very powerful organisations. But their victory was in the fight that they put up. Their victory was in the fact that one of them gets to make a choice – that I will not let that person die or be in trouble. I think any other ending would have felt fake and filmy as opposed to organic.

Watch the Berlin film trailer here: