Indrajit Nattoji Describes Aafat-E-Ishq As A Challenging Script & A Twist Of A Looming Pandemic

Indrajit Nattoji, who has previously directed feature film Aagey Se Right, is the director and screenwriter of Zee 5's upcoming film Aafat-e-Ishq, an official remake of the multi awarded Hungarian film Liza, The Fox-Fairy spills beans about the film and his working experience. It stars Neha Sharma, Amit Sial, Namit Das, Deepak Dobriyal and Ila Arun.

On talking about the film he shares, "Aafat-e-Ishq is a dark dramedy set in the small-town Indian heartland. It is the story of a young woman’s quest for true love where she finds herself to be the prime suspect of a series of deaths, while an ancient curse looms large. The story has supernatural elements with a whodunit twist. Aafat-e-Ishq is a film journey that has been as quirky and edgy as the film itself, with a challenging script, a relentless quest for the right location, and a twist of a looming pandemic thrown in! I hope the film catches the audience’s imagination and succeeds in entertaining them, something we all need as we slowly emerge from a devastating 2020."

He further adds, "The Zee Studio Originals team had acquired the rights for the award-winning Hungarian film ‘Liza the Fox-Fairy’. During one of my script-pitch meetings with them, they, in turn, pitched an Indian remake of the same to me. I loved the film and its quirky black humor and it connected with some of my favourite story-telling genres that I have been always been a fan of- Fantasy, film noir, and romantic comedies."

On talking about the challenges and difficulties of remaking the film he shares, "The film ‘Liza- the Fox Fairy’ is set in 1970s Hungary, at the onset of a capitalistic consumerist society. The challenge was to reinterpret a story with an East-European socialist sensibility to that of an Indian one. It would have been easy for me to ‘remake’ the film by setting the story in old Goa with a Christian family. Also, the creative team at Zee5 wanted a film set in a quintessential Indian heart-land. And that was the real challenge. To minimise Liza’s influence on our script, I only saw the film twice. Once as an audience and the second time as a film-maker. As I set out to write the script I looked for a writer who is more of a story writer as opposed to a film writer. This was to bring in a fresh storytelling style for the adaptation. I finally collaborated with Neha Bahuguna on the script and soon came up with an ‘original’ script for Aaft-e-Ishq, which was more an adaptation than a ‘remake’ of Liza."

Indrajit is also consulting as a filmmaker to the Centre for Indian Music Experience, Bangalore, where he is conceptualising and producing three large scale film installations for India’s first Museum of Indian Music. As an artist he has recently created a hand painted music video for Kavita Seth’s Rangi Saari and also has exhibited his paintings in art galleries in Kolkata and Mumbai.