Director Duo Raj & DK On The Manoj Bajpayee Starrer The Family Man "Two Hour Film Wouldn't Have Done Justice, So We Made A Web Series"

The Family Man has been playing for last few weeks and is continuing to garner wonderful appreciation for itself. The Manoj Bajpayee starrer is one of the few web series from India that has managed to make waves internationally as well and credit for that must go to the show creators Raj & DK, the mavericks behind Stree, Go Goa Gone and 99 to name a few. We get chatting with the director duo.

Though the market for Indian web series is still nascent in India, The Family Man is successfully crossing boundaries internationally. Isn’t it over and beyond that you must have bargained for?

Raj: The one thing that really gave me clarity was when we went to present The Family Man to the critics association in LA. I realized that any of our series that come from India, if they are of certain quality and carry entertaining value then they don’t treat it like a Hindi or an English series. Most of our series can travel the world, just like we are watching global series with subtitles. We are seeing reactions coming from world over.

DK: To be honest, we have all been aware that Amazon and Netflix are global platforms. There is always a dream that our work travels internationally. We realized that when our show was featured at TCA at LA where all major studios showcased their prominent shows, like Sony, Disney, HBO, Showtime and of course Amazon and Netflix. What’s more surprising that it was showcased to American TV critics like any other American show. There were shows featuring George Clooney, Orlando Bloom, Anne Hathaway, and along with these The Family Man was showcased as well. It was really heartwarming to see the response of the critics there. They were cheering for it. This is when we realized that this would have long legs. The middle class aspect worked with them as it resonates worldwide. The aspirations and the emotional reality worked well with the critics there too.

How did the two of you actually sit down and conceptualize the entire show?

Raj: It’s two different thoughts that led to this. One was of my uncle who was a CID officer and he made quite an impression on me. He used to narrate stories when people asked what he does. He used to play games with me where I had to make CID observations like how many people were behind me, and that too without looking. It stayed in my head. He also used to sing great. He was quite an entertainer. In The Family Man, music converted into shaayaris for Shrikant [played by Manoj Bajpayee]. Secondly, the canvas in which we could build this, we could form a show around middle class where we all actually come from. There, we could base this protagonist who is also a super sleuth. We were very excited about it and this is how we formed the roots for The Family Man.

DK: The seed of the idea was in our mind for a while, which is that of this character who is an ordinary middle class man doing an extraordinary job. It kind of occurred to us that we are creating a memorable character. The canvas was such that it would lead to more than a two hour film. So we thought that this is something that we would use for a great series. A two hour film won’t do justice to it as it is mainly plot driven. In a show you get to explore the character, his family and their aspirations and then you can go also afford to explore tangents. You get to see the family and also the geo-political state of the country. Back in time there weren't any platforms that could give it due importance that is required. When Amazon Prime came, we were some of the first people who were signed on. That was end of 2016. We were also working on another film and then went on to produce Stee. Post that we started working on the show. The writing process took us a year. It is a layered subject. It was like writing five films so it wasn’t easy.

(To be continued in Part 2)

Read More: Director Duo Raj & DK On Comparisons Of Manoj Bajpayee’s The Family Man With Israeli Spy Series Fauda - "Fauda Wasn't At The Back Of Our Head At All"