Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba director to WION on filming intimacy scenes, future sequel & more

Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillrubadirector Jayprad Desai Exclusive:Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey starrer Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba was one of the most-awaited films of the year so when we got in touch with director Jayprad Desai on his pulp fiction tale of passion, romance, infidelity and murder since we knew he would have a lot to tell us about what went down on the sets of his film.

A sequel to a hit Netflix film, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba opened to a mixed response but that much was predictable from the start. In an exclusive chat with WION, Jayprad Desai opened up about weaving a world of Hindi pulp fiction which had charming characters entangled in a life of lust, love, crime and drama and would go to any lengths for love.

Here are the edited excerpts of our chat:

Q: How was it getting back with Vikrant and Taapsee for the Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba?

A: Hasseen Dillruba already has an established fanbase and the world of pulp has a different colour and flamboyance to it. With this film, I wanted to take it further and make it more exciting, giving the audience a thrilling ride. At the same time, delve deeper into the characters, into their psyche, to make an enjoyable experience for the audience at this time. It was great to see they take the story forward.

Does Bollywood haveintimacycoordinators for sexual scenes?

Q: Taapsee and Vikrant have intense chemistry and the film is high on intimacy. Do we in Bollywoodhave something like intimacy coordinators, like the West?

A: We do have that generally but on this film, we didn’t. It’s important for the actors to be comfortable with themselves. Taapsee and Vikrant have done a film together now. So they were at ease. In a film like this, when you are doing such things, you slowly plan how you want to do everything, making sure that nobody gets uncomfortable at any time. I'm sure we've cracked it well in this film.

As a director I make sure that my actors are comfortable and are completely in sync with what we are doing.

As for intimacy coordinators, we do have that here and I myself have used in previous films.

Q: Does the film have a moral compass amid all the love and betrayal?

A: The fun about this is that it has people or protagonists who are ambiguously twisted, they are even edgy sometimes. Sometimes they’re almost sociopaths, like charismatic sociopaths. That's why you fall for them. They are very easy to reach for but that also draws from the fact that all of us have an iota of that in us. We are all drawn to the forbidden. That is what kind of fascinates us about it – what intrigues us about it. We are all flawed. No one is perfect. But with that thereis always a danger of feeling it too much and listening to the sense of humanity of us.

When we say moral compass. Are we all good? No. But are we all bad? No. So if we tap into the flamboyance and the colourfulness of the world that we inhabit, we will not lose the innocence of humanity. This is what we aimed for in the film.

Jayprad Desai answers if we can expect Hasseen Dillruba 3

Q: Should we also expect Hasseen Dillruba 3?

A: It does have the promise for another film as well but I think it's too early right now. This is a film which is going to take the world ahead. Maybe the audience is even more colourful and crazier than before. And I look forward to that and how people enjoy this.Read WION's review of the film here.

'Hatke' is now the new normal in films

Q: Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba is not conventionally mainstream film. It’s become so with the coming in of technology and world of OTT opening our horizons. How do you feel about that change as a director in 2024?

A: I think the safest way to make an unsuccessful film is to make a safe film if you understand what that means because we kind of bracket ourselves and build walls around ourselves, ending the belief that this is this and this is what the audience wants. But while doing that, we are in fact ensuring that you are making a film that the audience is not going to like. Because like us, the audience is always keen to witness something, to look at something, to hear something that they have not seen or heard or experienced before.

So freshness is something that all of us really, really seek. As long as we find that freshness in the films we watch, in the formats that we have, in the narrative styles, in the acting, in the music, that's all that we should seek for, and I'm sure the audience will like it as well.