SPECIAL INTERVIEW: “When I was working as just as a content writer, I had no idea that I would end up as a director” HEENA D'SOUZA

Jyothi Venkatesh

Tell us something about your journey in the entertainment industry?

I moved to Mumbai in 2010 for work when I developed a keen interest in theater. I used to attend plays almost every weekend and sometimes during the week.

I was working as a content writer in an educational innovation firm, developing multimedia content for schools and at that time I had no idea that I would end up making films.

How did you bag the opportunity?

The opportunity was very accidental. I moved to a company called Home veda co-owned by Vinay Mishra who also owns a digital short film platform called Humaramovie.

Both companies operated in the same building. So watching short films being made gave me the confidence and the itch to make my own short film.

I wrote a short film script and pitched it to Humaramovie. The film called Vighna Bharta, was produced under a budget of 20k which went on being viral on YouTube.

Go on!

Since then, I have made several short films, documentaries and corporate ads. I am now an in-house director, writer and script curator with Humaramovie.

My breakthrough in the industry happened when my first big budget short film “Pressure Cooker” starring Pallavi Joshi got nominated for a prestigious film magazine award. It also got nominated for MIFF and won the best film in Talent Track digital awards.

Then?

My another short “Adi Sonal” starring Neena Gupta and Lalit Bahl became a part of a feature length anthology called Shuruaat Ka Twist which was released in 2019 in theaters. Adi Sonal was very well received by various critics all over India.

I made another short called Sarvagun Sampann in 2019 which was also nominated by the same film magazine.

Mukesh Jasoos is my first web series and I am very excited and eagerly waiting for the responses and reviews.

What inspired you to write Mukesh Jasoos?

Thriller is one of my favorite genres but lately every series in this space is either dark or extremely grim.

So I wanted to make something light hearted and humorous in the thriller space. This is how Mukesh Jasoos was conceptualized where our main character Mukesh , played by Rahul

Bagga is a quintessential loser but a hustler at heart who never gives up. Mukesh lives with his alcoholic

mother in law. To top it up the circumstances force him to change careers from a quack lawyer to a quack

detective. Just around when it all seems to fall in place, he starts getting to solve some petty crime cases

in spite of his questionable skills and laughable methodology. While he navigates these petty crimes, something more sinister starts brewing in his basti.

Were you involved in the casting of the series? How did you go about finalizing the cast?

Yes being the director I was involved in the casting process. Rahul Bagga was always in our list of preferences for Mukesh’s role.

He is a gifted actor and also someone who is very easy to work with. He was very fit for Mukesh’s character we had in mind and hence after several auditions he came out to be the best choice.

I discovered Paritosh Tripathi after watching Anurag Basu’s film Ludo on Netflix. He is a great actor with an amazing comic timing.

He had also acted in the film Mastram, way back a decade ago. He proved to be a clear winner in the audition for Muktaram’s character out of the options we had at that time.

How did you zero in on actress Rajeshwari Sachdev for the role of Kalyani?

We were very lucky to get Rajeshwari Sachdeva for Kalyani’s part. The magic that she has brought to the character is worth watching.

The most unconventional casting is that of Poonam Dhillon. The audience will enjoy seeing her as Sumati, Mukesh’s quirky and bewdi mother-in law.

For Sulekha’s character, we were initially considering a real life influencer but Ruchi Malviya’s audition for a basti dwelling wannabe influencer was so spot on that we decided to cast her for the part.

The secondary casting was the most Difficult part because even the small roles were very challenging and offbeat. We were lucky to get good actors who did it because they found the roles interesting.

Where did you shoot the show?

Mukesh Jasoos was entirely shot in Mumbai as it is the story of a Mumbai based basti.

Who are your inspirations in the entertainment industry?

I really admire Sriram Raghavan and Vikramaditya Motwane. I feel they are one of the rare directors in the industry who haven’t limited themselves to just one genre or formula. Their work is not just versatile but also depicts originality and a very keen eye for details.

What are your future plans in film making, also on OTT front?

After the release of Mukesh Jasoos, which is currently streaming on the Disney Plus Hotstar.

I am currently working on a web series and also have pitched two feature length films, hoping for them to get funded.