“OTT has made the culture of watching global content much more prevalent”

Creator, writer, screenplay writer, creative director, filmmaker – Souvik Gupta dons many hats. His latest work, ‘Yeh Dooriyan’, has gained traction in the digital space. Starring Paresh Pahuja and Manjari Fadnnis, the web series was released in May 2022 digitally on popular YouTube channel Humaramovie.

Entirely shot during the first phase of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Gupta considers ‘Yeh Dooriyan’ his most precious work to date. ‘Yeh Dooriyan’ is a love story about a long-distance marriage. Even though it was shot during the lockdown, it is not a story about lockdown or the pandemic, it is just a catalyst and finds very little mention in the series.

After completing his MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in 2009, Gupta worked in the corporate setup as well as in the entertainment industry. Along with a few short films and a mini-series on YouTube, he has also worked with OTT platforms such as Voot, ZEE5, Eros Now, and ALTBalaji.

In conversion with Adgully, Souvik Gupta speaks about his journey as a filmmaker, the film greats who have inspired him over the years, the making of the web series ‘Yeh Dooriyan’ during the lockdown period, upcoming projects, and more.

Could you take us through your journey as a filmmaker?

Ever since my childhood, I have wanted to tell stories or be a part of telling them. I used to write short stories and acted in plays at school. At the same time, I was also a major film buff even as a kid and I used to watch all kinds of movies. So, at home I would enjoy watching everything from ‘Pather Panchali’ to ‘E.T.’ to ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’. By the time I was in my late teens, I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker. I started doing amateur stuff with a handycam. My friends during the MBA days were also surprisingly well-versed with international cinema, and their knowledge broadened my horizon.

However, it was after moving to Mumbai in 2010 that I became more serious about becoming a filmmaker. I did a few short films, some of which got screened in various short film festivals. A bigger step came in when I wrote and directed a mini-series, ‘Ranjish’, in 2015-16. Post that, I went to work as writer and creative director on two projects – one for ZEE5 and another for Voot. In 2020, I came up with the script for ‘Yeh Dooriyan’, and thankfully Humaramovie agreed to support it.

What prompted you to make ‘Yeh Dooriyan’? Why did you find this story worth telling on the screen?

I have been planning to write and direct a love story for a long time. I think we do and see enough of those nice romantic stories these days. On the other hand, in the last few years, I have seen a lot of my friends and relatives undergo long-distance relationships and marriages -- some have survived very well, and some, unfortunately, have not. I have heard their experiences.

I think that it is a very contemporary issue, and it is going to happen more and more with a certain age group, mostly due to professional commitments. And with the pandemic hitting us, forcing people to stay away, even when they were in the same city, I felt it was the most appropriate time to make such a story. However, ‘Yeh Dooriyan’ is not a story about lockdown or the pandemic, it is just a catalyst and finds very little mention in the series; it is very much a love story about a long-distance marriage. In fact, I had the skeleton of a story about a long-distance marriage earlier. I modified it later when the pandemic hit us.

Who are the filmmakers who have inspired your filmmaking?

To be honest, there are a lot of them – both Indian and international. As a Bengali person, it’s almost impossible to be not influenced by Satyajit Ray’s films – pretty much everything from ‘Charulata’ to ‘Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne’. My mother’s love for Raj Kapoor’s films also rubbed off on me; one of our common favourite films is ‘Mera Naam Joker’. As a teenager, I was very strongly impacted by both Mani Ratnam and Rituporno Ghosh – the former could tackle such larger-than-life socio-political issues often with mythological allegory within intimate stories, while the latter had a unique voice when it came to modern relationships and especially women’s lives.

Among the countless international filmmakers, including the greats such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, two directors who have left the strongest impression are possibly Asghar Farhadi and Alejandro González Iñárritu. I can still vividly recall how absolutely gobsmacked I was after watching ‘Babel’ during my college days. If there were any doubts in my head about trying to become a filmmaker, they didn’t exist after watching ‘Babel’.

How do you view the growing march of the OTT space?

I think it is absolutely great for new voices such as mine to reach out to people and share stories. At the same time, it has made the culture of watching global content much more prevalent. I am an avid consumer of films and shows from all over the world, and a significant percentage of those are in languages I can’t speak – be it Malayalam or Spanish. It would have been impossible for us to have that wide an access had we depended on theatres only.

What challenges did you face while making ‘Yeh Dooriyan’?

‘Yeh Dooriyan’ was shot almost entirely during the first wave of COVID. So, the actors had to not only shoot on their own, but also arrange wardrobe, make-up, etc., by themselves. My DOP Ershad and I would guide them on Zoom, but kudos to the actors for being so cooperative and also giving such fine performances. As most of the film is conversational through chat-services or apps such as Google Duo, the footage from all actors had to be coordinated and edited on the video-calling interfaces, which was a mammoth challenge. Pronoy Dasgupta is a very established editor, but he agreed to do this series despite it being a much smaller project for him. And I am so thankful because without him, I would have struggled to complete ‘Yeh Dooriyan’.

However, I must also thank three very important people – my VFX head Sushanta Bhattacharya for the amazing work in designing the interfaces and creating the social media clips, and my two associate editors – Priyanka Dey and Indrajit Ghosh – for the painstaking work in stitching the series together. These three are the post-production heroes of ‘Yeh Dooriyan’.

Could you tell us about your upcoming projects?

Currently, I can confirm that there are two shows scheduled for release -- one for Eros Now (with Mona Singh in the lead) and another for ALTBalaji/ MX Player. In the former, I am the creator and writer; in the latter, I am the story and screenplay writer. As for other projects, I should be able to confirm them hopefully sometime soon.