With Hunkkaar: The Roar, co-director Heeraz Marfatia found himself working on a story that could easily have slipped into familiar territory – a young woman taking on a powerful godman and a system stacked against her. Instead, the writer chose to look beyond the crime and examine the machinery around it: the police officer, the lawyer, the journalist, the followers and, ultimately, the people who make up the system itself.
For Marfatia, the six-part series was also a reminder of why good storytelling needs time. As lead writer, he spent months in the writers’ room wrestling with structure, character tracks and the challenge of sustaining the immediacy of a courtroom drama without losing its emotional core. That belief in development is also central to Writers Cut, the company he runs with writer-producer Shubhra Chaturvedi. In this conversation, Marfatia discusses building Hunkkaar, the importance of disagreement in a writers’ room, why rushed development costs the industry more than it realises, and his larger belief that he doesn’t want to be part of the “content world” but the “story world.”
Hunkkaar is about a 17-year-old taking on an enormously powerful spiritual figure, but the story also examines the systems around him – police, courts, media and public opinion. Why did you feel this was a story that needed to be told now? What about today’s India makes Hunkkaar particularly relevant?
The story is inherently about Justice. Every individual feels powerless at some point in their lives. This feeling of powerlessness is what I am after. I think this feeling is dangerous, it can take everything down.
Why is ‘Hunkkaar’ extremely relevant? Because it combats this powerless feeling. All you need is courage, to stand up and fight back. A people, a system will very slowly but eventually hear you. The system is like a watchdog; it sometimes needs a whistle to get its attention. Justice is about finding that right frequency when you whistle. And we can all whistle.
Heeraz Marfatia
Take us inside the writers’ room for Hunkkaar. When you’re dealing with a story this sensitive, what are the arguments that happen before a scene finally makes it to the screen? Is disagreement actually essential to good writing?
Sensitive stories need eclectic people. One must pick writers who can have different sensibilities and points of view, but they all should have a larger shared worldview and an open mind. Each writer, including me, the lead writer, must be open to having their mind changed by the others.
We had a lot of don’ts in this room. We didn’t want to sensationalise, didn’t want to be insensitive, didn’t want to be defeatist, yet somehow manage to be dramatic. Disagreement is the cornerstone of a writers’ room. We had a lot of arguments on the structure of the show: how to break up the courtroom drama so it does not get too heavy and hamper the immediacy and hurtling nature of the show. Also, how all the various character tracks are interwoven – they bunch up, then they branch out.
There was lots of drawing on whiteboards. It’s also about giving lots of space to everyone to express themselves and yet keep the ball rolling on the timeline. The lead writer and the writing assistant are like the director and the first AD that keep the shooting moving.
But what I look for specifically is when the group’s hive mind can be activated and they find they can be more than themselves. Hunkkaar’s room was more than the sum of its individual parts. We made each other better and were very ambitious with what we wanted to say.
Writers Cut has positioned itself as a development-focused production company at a time when the industry is increasingly driven by speed and getting projects into production. Why have you chosen to put development at the centre of the business and what do you think the industry loses when development is rushed?
Films, shows, even video games are all worlds that someone has had to build. Only a higher form can build a world in the snap of a finger. Building a world requires an immersive process, grey yet enduring characters, a clear premise, a unique point of view and the list can go on and on.
As well as the story, characters and the point of view need to have an authentic, organic, visceral relationship with each other. Only then will you really start to get an emotional response from an audience that makes the box office sing.
This long, hard and grinding work goes unseen only because it is so deeply embedded as the foundation of the structure. The performances, the look take precedence, which is fine and expected as far as the audience is concerned.
But the industry knows better. Development is the bedrock and unfortunately the most short-changed phase of the creative process. These worlds require incubation. True development is like geology, it takes time and pressure.
You asked what the industry loses when development is rushed? The harsh truth is… the industry does not lose as far as compelling storytelling or films that stand the test of time. What it loses is hard-core REVENUE!! My contention is take a blockbuster, make the writing better, it will do even bigger numbers. Write an average film better and it has chances of becoming a blockbuster.
We all – streamers, studios, production companies, producers and even directors, have not truly comprehended this. Shubhra (Writer & Co-producer on Delhi Crime), my partner in Writers Cut, and I always say… our business plan is simple. Every writer that works with us should want to come back for more.
There is a tendency to turn stories about sexual assault into straightforward victim-versus-perpetrator narratives. Hunkkaar seems more interested in power and the machinery surrounding the allegation. Was it important for you to move away from the familiar template? How does having female collaborators change the prism?
Yes, it was very important to move away from a familiar paradigm. The task was to find a distinctive take in this inherently bleak story. What was the point of view that could create a singular, special and life-affirming lens?
Instead of being despondent about the system never working and about Justice being relegated to just being an ideal, let’s give a hopeful take, that if all the pillars of the Criminal Justice system work… the cop, the lawyer, the journalist, they just need to do their job ‘without passion & prejudice’.
The system is only as good or as bad as the office bearers that stand behind it. Three individuals do the right thing and the chain clicks in to become a juggernaut that can’t be stopped.
So own your system. Empower yourself, you the people are the system.
About having female collaborators changing the prism? I think it definitely can. Though the whole writers’ room was male in this case. But we did have Nitya (Creator, Director, Executive Producer) as our pulse of sensitivity at every step. I think it’s for the women who see the show to decide if we men were able to portray it sensitively and with care.
You’ve worked across writing and direction. What is the biggest misconception about writing a series as opposed to writing a feature film? Does the longer format actually give writers more freedom, or does the need to hold an audience across episodes make the craft more demanding?
Directing your own writing in the best feeling in the world. The intention at the source, which is the writing moving to its execution, which is directing, is so pure.
Writing a series is very different from writing a feature. In a series the character and plot work in tandem like a jugalbandi in the first season. But as the seasons progress, character takes over and the crutch of plot slowly starts to get invisible, becoming part of a larger whole like a bionic arm of sorts.
As the adage goes, character is plot and plot is character, and with great writing you can’t tell them apart. Features definitely have a more directorial stamp. The crutch of plot is more visible to move the narrative along. But in very good hands, plot and character amalgamate to create a whole where one can’t see the difference anymore.
Yes, series writing gives more freedom. In a series, the writing has a bigger part to play than the writing in a feature is my belief.
There is an entire generation entering filmmaking today without necessarily going to film school; they’ve learnt through YouTube, streaming, short-form content and simply making things. Having studied cinema yourself, do you think formal film education still matters, or is the industry itself the better classroom?
I think it’s about the bent of mind of the individual. No right or wrong answer. I don’t think it’s necessary to go to film school, at least not as an undergraduate. Filmmaking is a language. First you need to figure what you want to say, then you can learn the language of filmmaking.
You can of course learn it as well when you assist someone for long. But how you process it is very different. I feel if you assist someone at first, it’s harder to develop your own voice.
In my case it was totally the reverse. I did an MFA in Cinema, my thesis “Birju” film was nominated for an Oscar in the student category. And then I assisted Oscar winner Roland Joffé (The Mission & The Killing Fields). Post that I assisted Shekhar Kapur.
But I will definitely say I could learn with a level of discernment because of my film school education. So yes, formal film education does matter. And yet there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
What separates someone who has a great idea from someone who can actually sustain a story for eight episodes
Coming up with a great idea is a matter of creativity. Directors, creative producers can also have a great idea. But to sustain eight episodes is a matter of writing craft.
I respect great ideas but they are not the end-all. They are just the seed. Series don’t work on seeds alone. They work on worlds and character development and how a narrative unfolds.
You need to watch it over six to eight hours of programming. Hunkkaar has a great hook but sustaining it was the real challenge.
When a writer comes into Writers Cut with a pitch, what are you listening for before you decide there is something worth developing?
Well, writers, as well as producers and directors, come in with great ideas. Even platform executives talk to us. So it happens in many ways. Sometimes we tell the streamer about our idea. But as I mentioned, nothing is a go till the company develops it to a certain level.
What Shubhra and I look for is that the story-idea or concept has legs. It has to have something to say that has not been said. A totally distinct take or a worldview. This is what lights our fire.
Films and series have a life of their own. They take the time they take, so the fire needs to stay lit. As I said, time and pressure makes wonderful movies and shows.
After spending years developing stories, what has changed in your own understanding of what makes a story worth telling?
That it stays with you and drives you insane till you don’t write it.
Has the abundance of content made you more selective about the stories you want to put your name behind?
In all humility, we are a tiny little company that is trying to make its mark. We have no delusions of grandeur. Writers Cut and I take the work we get.
If I or Writers Cut are developing on our own, then yes, we are more selective. Because the chances of something original going through in the abundance of “content” is good.
I have learned that I don’t want to be part of the content world. I want to be part of the story world.
But to your point, if it’s commissioned work, one has the confidence it will come out compelling if nothing else. Just need a little freedom and trust like I got from Nitya & Karan (Creator-Director-Producers of Hunkkaar) and Applause Entertainment when I developed this show for them.
Shout out to my fantastic writers’ room of Ravinder, Nikhil, Saurav and my writing assistant Chandra. And as Director to my great crew and the sublime cast.