Farzi, one of the most anticipated and the series that has become the talk-of-the-town, is all set to release on February 10. As the release is pretty near, The Pioneer interacted with its helmer, the director duo Raj & DK, who not only took us through their forming days, but also spilled some beans on Farzi.
Shikha Duggal
If you ask most people who’s Raj and who’s DK in a picture of the director duo, they would be flummoxed. But mention “Raj & DK” in one breath and filmy fans will tell you exactly what genre they specialise in! Before becoming the famed directors duo, they were actually engineers, and hailed from Andhra Pradesh! Infact, Hindi wasn’t their first language.
The duo are known for projects like Shor in the City, Go Goa Gone, and The Family Man.
Recently unveiled, the trailer of the crime thriller garnered appreciation for them. The excitement quotient around the show went up a notch further with featuring Shahid Kapoor in a refreshing avatar! The series will be released on Amazon Prime Video on February 10. And so, they spill out some details about the show too, the distich goes on.
Raj Nidimoru: We started shooting as a duo in Michigan, and mind you — it was a two unit team. Just DK and I! DK was handling the camera, and I was taking care of the boom mike. It was just the both of us who screamed “action, and cut.” As we started off in this industry, we already had a couple of films lined up for us because of the success of our short film: nonetheless, we had a “keeda” to go for a series instead!
Krishna D.K: We learnt everything on our own. We were doing “jugaad” back in those days to become a popular director duo. Our camera was also rented!
Raj Nidimoru: Our focus was never on commercialisation, it was the artistic sensibilities. Cine-goers also claim that we only make niche films, it’s untrue. Earlier, we didn’t have popular faces on board so our films looked like the “festival films” but we were just trying to marry the art.
Krishna D.K: Farzi is our most favorite script until now! We were all set to go with it right after Shor in the City. Nobody has touched the theme of counterfeiting and it’s a massive offence that’s slipping away from the eyes of this country. We only react when there is an explosion and people die! To us, it’s “financial terrorism.”
Raj Nidimoru: We were always hyphenated together, but we cut it short because my name was sounding like a Japanese (he laughs) and our ethnicity wasn’t clear to the audiences.
Krishna D.K: He’s just kidding, it was for brevity. It was getting hard to remember! So we just went ahead with “Raj & DK” — you can’t mess with this now. But there were jokes again saying “your names are so small that we miss it on the posters”. And, I was mesmerized with the way Raashii Khanna complimented us and called us “feminist directors.” Nobody ever piqued so deep into us! Genius is okay, but feminist is what I relate to honestly. So thank you Raashii. True that, we are open-minded when we write our characters. Because there is a dearth of strong female characters in our industry, and when we write one, probably that’s what catches the interest of our spectators too.
Raj Nidimoru: We are the south Indians in Mumbai and we don’t discriminate. Wasn’t able to cast a lot of actors from all the languages in a feature film because of the format. As soon as the OTT world got open to us—this was our freedom of expression to bring whether it was Sundeep Kishan, Samantha or Raashii Khanna and Regina Cassandra now on board. Moreover, censorship and graphic issues were less! There were no airs about casting A-listers together, instead we saw something new on the sets of Farzi — each one of them was feeding off one another. Our extended thanks to Regina Cassandra for doing a cameo for us! For the record, there were no ego clashes on sets.
Krishna D.K: Our first film in America was more Hindi than English. We let our actors speak the language they are most comfortable with even if it’s Tamil. Both of us were the movie buffs in our college and even teamed up there! I could have been the founder of Amazon, who knows (he laughed) but here we are pursuing our passion. I always wanted to become a writer first! We weren’t discontent from living our lives as engineers, but we found excitement.
Raj Nidimoru: Both of us were feeling the corporate culture but this was an escape idea for me. DK still had a plan B, I didn’t. We didn’t have the luxury to attend a film school either. We were having our own interactions with cinema through television. For example, how did Steven Spielberg helm this scene?
Krishna D.K: Talking about the theme of the series, it’s true that wealth takes precedence over everything. Money opens a lot of doors for you, you are then called “successful” in your respective lives! Money dictates your work these days. And, creativity alone in direction will make you look like a mad-man. Hence we add themes! Until today, our engineering backgrounds come in handy for us allowing us to structure our character graphs.
Raj Nidimoru: We call ourselves the “sane filmmakers.” We don’t even know the concept of wrap-up parties!
Krishna D.K: In America, we were not living in the same towns. We made our first short film where Raj was staying and I was traveling every weekend to Detroit. Except that I always have a record of missing the return flights! (He giggled).
