Exclusive: The Night Manager makers on remaking a hit show and a possibility of a second season

The Night manager Web-series:Bollywood actors Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur have large shoes to fill this Friday as they make their web series debut in Sandeep Modi's The Night Manager. An official Indian remake of the hit British series by the same name, the show is a spy thriller with Kapur playing a night manager of a five-star hotel who is given the task by the Indian intelligence to nab the world's most dreaded arms dealer played by Anil Kapoor.

The original British series was released in 2016 and starred Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman, and Elizabeth Debicki in lead roles. Based on author John le Carré's 1993 book, the series was aired on BBC One and earned critical acclaim. The Night Manager was nominated for thirty-six awards that year, of which it won eleven, including two Primetime Emmy Awards (for director Susanne Bier and music composer Victor Reyes) and three Golden Globe Awards (for Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Laurie).

Considering the series was a huge hit back in the year of release, it has over the years enjoyed a huge fan base. Something that Indian filmmaker and director Sandeep Modi and producer Simon Corwell (the producer of the original series and the remake) know very well. In a candid chat with WION, the two makers discussed the pressure of making a remake of successful series, why it had to be adapted for the Indian audience, and if there is a possibility of season 2 of 'The Night Manager.

Here are the excerpts from the interview:

Q: Congratulations on the show. Considering it's a remake of a hit series, comparisons are inevitable. Did that pose as a challenge?

Sandeep Modi: There are things in the original that I told my team was gold. Don't throw the gold, I said. The key part was to identify what's awesome and keep that. So it was critical and challenging to make it Indian and yet to stay true to the vision of John le Carré. The joy was whenever we would finish an episode and send a rough cut to Team Ink- the true custodian of le Carre's legacy, we were always sensitive to how Simon and the team would react and they have so far liked it. Very gracious with their love for it honestly.

Simon Corwell:Sandy has excelled. He did his best and it worked. From my perspective, Obviously, Iloved the original but what I love about the Indian show is that we move in so many ways beyond the original. In the storytelling and direction, we are breaking new ground, if we look at Adi's performance or Anil's performance, they have found their own version of the characters and made it their own.

Tilottama Shome is just fantastic. She made the part her own instantly. Gives it so much emotional strength.

Sandeep and the team have given the show recognisable links to the original but it's so much more than that. From my perspective, it looks emotionally strong and exciting.

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Q: How did the Indian remake come about?

Simon Corwell: It came about, quite honestly, randomly. We started the conversation about the Indian remake of the series. At that time my dad (author John le Carré) was still alive. I went to him and told him that somebody has floated the idea to make an Indian adaptation. I was a little nervous, he wrote the book and it's not set in India. But his face lit up and he said 'How fabulous a thing that would be!'. His story was universal enough to be the jumping-off point for an entirely new way of re-telling it. So that was how the journey started. And then the challenge became how to tell the story in a way it feels completely Indian. But I must say that as writers Sandeep (Modi ) and Shridhar (Raghavan) have made such a great reality of that vision.

Sandeep Modi: Of course, we had to tweak it. We had interrogatedevery part of the book in that sense. I had to tell the team if it was only required to be told in Hindi we could have easily dubbed Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie's voices in Hindi. But that's not how a story works and the audience should be invested emotionally and culturally in the show.There are many aspects- dare I tell the lovers of the original- we have tinkered around with. We hope you like it. if not I am going underground for a week or two(laughs)

Q: The casting seems very interesting. It brings together commercial stars like Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur in the same frame as Tillotama Shome, who is known to be a part of indies and world cinema. What was the mandate for casting such actors?

Sandeep: I was aided by a great team. Mukesh Chhabra my casting director was instrumental in this. He always comes up with whacked-out ideas for casting and I pick the best out of them and push him to deliver more. Tillotama was someone I was personally invested in. I will take the credit for casting her. I always felt that the strength of character that Olivia Coleman played in the original was different. Strength is a mental thing not physical. And to portray a strong intelligence officer did not require physical strength. Wanted to make a statement by casting a brilliant actor like Tillotama. That's why she was cast- who could make a vulnerable personal look strong and that's what our challenge was. Strength has so many shades and colours, so many types.

Anil Sir is a mainstream superstar and Tilottama has made us proud with her work in world cinema the face-off between the two is something that I had dreamt of long back.

This is an Indian show set in Asia with Indian talent. So when you say India, there are so many Indians and actors from all across the country. So there is Bengali actor Saswata Chatterjee, there is Rukshar, and there is Ravi Behl. We have actors from Kashmir. So much talent! Even with the crew- we got the best to tell an Indian story.

Q: What is that one essential thing that makes for a good Indian thriller?

Sandeep: I think it comes from emotions. Every story comes from emotion. I consider Mr Ram Madhvani my mentor. Both of us created 'Aarya' and we always felt good thrillers always make the audience sit on the edge of their seat but that only happens when they can connect with the characters. The only reason the viewer will connect to a thriller is when they care about the characters. Joy is the emotion.

Q: Simon, there has been so much conversation about making season 2 of the original series The Night Manager. Will it ever happen?

Simon: I would love to see season two of The Night Manager. Maybe the stars will align for it happens but you know it's been a long time now. It's a dream of mine for a long time but it will stay a dream perhaps.

The Night Manager stars Aditya Roy Kapur, Sobhita Dhulipala, Anil Kapoor, Tillotama Shome in key roles and releases on Disney+Hotstar on February 17.