Wanted to do something twisted with 'Sandeep Aur Pinki Faraar': Dibakar Banerjee

Director Dibakar Banerjee was not interested in exploring the dynamic of a typical relationship between a man and woman in "Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar", which he says, is his attempt to make something twisted on gender and patriarchy.

Even the names are a flip on gender expectations as the female lead is known as 'Sandeep' while the male protagonist is called 'Pinky'.

Backed by Yash Raj Films and starring two mainstream Bollywood stars in Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor, the film will "provoke, intrigue and unsettle" the audiences, the director said.

"The thought was to look at gender in a way we hadn't looked at before. I was not really satisfied with the template of a typical relationship between a man and a woman. Why make a film about it? That's when, certain things that I've always wondered about, came together. In this case, it's gender," Dibakar told PTI in an interview.

The director, known for films such as "Khosla Ka Ghosla", "Love Sex Aur Dhokha" and "Shanghai", is not new to subverting expectations and predictable scenarios to tell stories that stand apart in Bollywood.

"Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar", he said, gave him a chance to play off Bollywood's own "unsaid and implicit patriarchy" through the two actors.

"The big studios are famous for that kind of patriarchy and that kind of marginalisation of women, that kind of male gaze. Even when you have films that sort of break the male gaze, the confusion is even more apparent because in the same film, the gaze keeps changing because we are taught to appease the masses, give them what they want. We need the male gaze and we need the female as a consumption material for that male gaze," he said.

Parineeti, Dibakar said, is a talented actor, but has been at the receiving end of Bollywood's patriarchal approach.

"They have played a couple before in films where the patriarchy has been nauseating. It's a part of their life. They have to survive. Parineeti has been on the receiving end of that kind of a patriarchal divide and treatment. In so many films, she is such a talented actress, (but has been) there as the target of the gaze," he said.

"Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar", marks Parineeti and Arjun's third film together after their full-fledged debut "Ishaqzaade" in 2012 and "Namaste England" (2018).

"The kind of profile Arjun and Parineeti have, I had this opportunity to do something slightly interesting and twisted. These opportunities happen once in a while," the director said.

For Dibakar, who has always maintained that he makes films "cheap", the idea is to make his movies "as interesting as possible while knowing that it will provoke and intrigue and unsettle, rather than sort of give the audience 'everything is okay' bill."