Nikkhil Advani says was challenging to keep his own biases out of Batla House project

Making a film on a contentious subject is always challenging. For director Nikkhil Advani, it was even more as he had to insulate the narration of events surrounding the Batla House encounter in his next film from his own biases and examine the complexities in their entirety.

Advani said his focus was on the human aspect of what had happened during the police encounter in Delhi's Batla House in 2008. "How split-second decisions were made, the rationale, the personal history, ambitions, personal risks and conflicts," he said.

To do that, a film-maker needs to do a thorough research, backed by a strong screenplay.

Advani said the research on the project was done by his screenwriter-friend Ritesh Shah, an alumnus of Jamia Millia Islamia university which is close to the site of the encounter.

In fact, Shah brought the story to Advani and had already worked on it.

"What fascinated me the most beyond politics or controversy was how humans behave under pressure, how people lead in crisis situations, how they make decisions.

"I wanted to make a film that invites my audience to look at things from all angles and think about this encounter in all its complexities," Advani said in an email interview to PTI.

For someone who has made entertaining films like Kal Ho Naa Ho and thrillers like D- Day, the most challenging bit was to keep his own biases out of the project, he said.

Shah scurried through police files in the public domain as well as news articles and blogs by prominent journalists and Jamia Millia Teachers Solidarity Union.

"I would say the idea was to look at all and any kind of material in the public domain. I believe he (Shah) worked on it for about a year," Advani said.

"Ritesh (Shah) himself is a Jamia student, so he had the advantage of first-hand conversations with journalists who were around at the time. He then took four years to write the draft that made me feel like I was ready to do this," he said.

Asked if he had taken any "creative liberty" in the portrayal of any incident, he said, "As you can imagine, yes there is some creative liberty in trying to interpret personal motivations and relationships these are, of course, inferred.

"But, for things like court proceedings, we have stayed accurate to transcripts available and out in the public domain."