Homi Adajania’s unmade films are his best

Homi Adajania makes his web-series debut with ‘Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo’

For all the havoc it wreaked and the lives it destroyed, the pandemic had a flipside: it made a working director out of Homi Adajania. Famously mercurial and reluctant, Homi has been busier than ever. His last feature film, Angrezi Medium, released in 2020. Since then, Homi has knitted together two projects in quick succession. Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo —which has a lot to recommend itself, including a bald-headed Deepak Dobriyal in a black robe aiming a gun at a female drug kingpin played by Dimple Kapadia — is releasing as an eight-part series on Disney+ Hotstar. It will be followed by Murder Mubarak, a film adaptation of an Anuja Chauhan novel, starring Sara Ali Khan and slated for release in 2024.

“I decided that once I cross 50 and everyone else is retiring, I am going to make movies regularly,” Homi says with a grin. The director spoke about foraying into streaming, his long-standing association with Dimple Kapadia, and some unique ideas languishing in his drawer. Excerpts:

‘Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo’ is about a group of women running a drug cartel from the edges of northern India. How did the idea begin?

I wrote the story in 2015. It’s about the women of a household who are considered by the men to be living a mundane life. They’re running a cottage industry which is actually a front for a dodgy cocaine business. The matriarch, Savitri (Dimple Kapadia), has a grim backstory that motivates her to create an oasis for other marginalized women of her community.

Because the story was too convoluted and long-drawn-out, I realized it could not be made into a feature. Then, once the web space started, (producer) Dinesh Vijan wanted to put Maddock Films on the map with this project. Once the pandemic subsided, we got cracking at it.

What’s your take on saas-bahu serials that have dominated the Indian middle-class imagination since the start of the 21st century?

I was aware of the (Ekta Kapoor-produced) K-serials and their popularity. People would tell me they are about kitchen politics and generational rivalry. But I was not privy to their content first-hand. I am not someone who consumes television; I barely watch movies. My mother watches sports or nature documentaries on television. I grew up in a household with zero gender bias. For me, gender inequality was an alarming thing when I became aware of it in my teens. It’s perhaps why my female characters are organically very strong and empowered.

Drug shows are a rage internationally. Did you reference any of them for ‘Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo’?

I haven’t seen Breaking Bad or Weeds. Often while filming, I’ll come up with an idea and someone in my crew will shoot it down saying it’s been done before. I did see Narcos. I loved the series for its marriage of fiction and non-fiction. In fact, in my show, there is one line where an investigator tells a local cop that they have a Pablo Escobar living amongst them. And the other man turns around and says, ‘We don’t know any Pablo Escobar, but there’s a guy who sells Pablo choco-bar’. It’s such an absurd line.

Homi Adajania shot ‘Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo’ in Rajasthan and Kutch

I found an old article you wrote about going mushroom-picking in Bhutan. Were they magic mushrooms?

No, they were absolutely kosher, edible mushrooms. It was a funny experience. They have a season in Bhutan when all the wild mushrooms grow. I went up to the foothills with a close friend of mine and his lovely family on whose trout farm I was living. There was an elderly security person with us walking in the front. Every five minutes, he would lift his arms up and scream loudly. I realized he was doing it to alert the wild bears in the area in advance.

Dimple Kapadia as the formidable matriarch and kingpin Savitri

You unlock something exciting in Dimple Kapadia each time. She’s been your oldest collaborator since ‘Being Cyrus’ (2005). What’s been the basis of this relationship?

Dimple is the most beautifully real person I know. She carries no baggage of her stardom. There is a lot of implicit trust between us. We both have a similar way of looking at life and finding humour in the darkest of places. In Finding Fanny (2014), there is a scene where her son played by Ranveer Singh chokes on the figurine on a cake and dies. Dimple is so destroyed when that happens. She is feeling every emotion of a mother losing her child, even though it’s a farcical moment. That’s what gives it a sense of truth.

AlSO READ: Homi’s where the heart is

Have you travelled much post the pandemic?

I was in Siachen Base Camp in Ladakh recently. It was brilliant spending time with our soldiers. I was diving for a while in the Andamans and the Maldives. My older son (Zreh) is now 14 and he’s an advanced open-water diver. I’m definitely going to drag him along on these trips. We’re thinking of going to Africa and maybe Fiji to dive with the whales. I have also always wanted to visit Japan. I’ve covered most of the far east but not Japan.

You once wanted to make a period film with Saif Ali Khan. Tell us about that project?

Way before Thugs of Hindostan (2018) had come out, I had a story called Thuggee. It was ‘Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll in 1857’. It was supposed to be a big-budget production but with a contemporary sensibility. It was about these guys traipsing around the outbacks of the subcontinent looking for treasure. It was a mad, mad idea, totally out there. Back then, we were not quite ready for it and there were also issues with the third act. We worked on it for quite a while.

Were there more ideas like that?

Many. If I die, you are welcome to take them out of my cupboard. I have one film about the Sannyasi of Bhawal case, which was the second biggest imposter case in the world, that unfolded in the 1930s. I have another story about four people sitting in a massive closed estate. It’s the end of the world and you realize there is only one person in the room. The other characters are figments of his imagination. The main guy is the last inmate of a mental asylum to have escaped when a nuclear war had broken out.

What are you reading these days?

I’ve been re-reading Living with the Himalayan Masters, by Swami Rama. I have re-immersed myself in my Yoga regime so that the book ggoes well with that. I usually keep 3-4 books open; one lies near the cot, one in the balcony, one in the office and one in the car. I was reading (Haruki) Murakami’s short stories on the shoot of Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo. I read a lot of Dostoevsky, Kundera, Camus. One of my all-time favourite books in fiction is Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. It’s about a boy who goes on a journey and discovers the meaning of life.

Saas, Bahu aur Flamingo premieres May 5 on Disney+ Hotstar