EXCLUSIVE | Netflix's 'Sikandar Ka Muqaddar' producer Shital Bhatia on the film: 'The feedback we have got so far has been excellent'

Netflix has released Neeraj Pandey’s Sikandar Ka Muqaddar on its platform from November 29. Starring Jimmy Shergill, Avinash Tiwary, and Tamannaah Bhatia, the film is produced by Friday Storytellers. Sikandar Ka Muqaddar unravels a gripping tale of a police officer’s relentless pursuit to solve a diamond heist — but at what cost? As the tension builds, questions arise: Are the three suspects truly guilty, or is there more to the story than meets the eye?

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Friday Storytellers’ Shital Bhatia, who’s also the producer of the film, spoke about collaborating with Neeraj Pandey, cinema changing, and the evolution of OTT.

Edited excerpts from the interview

Netflix’s Sikandar Ka Muqaddar is a very quirky title and wicked kind of a movie. What was the thought that went behind it when it came to you?

The story was very interesting. Like you’re saying, it was very quirky. The story didn’t come to me. The story comes to Neeraj, and once it comes to him, we discuss it. And we found it very interesting, and we thought we should make this into a film, and that’s how it happened.

And, cinema is changing and the whole perspective of the whole lookout for cinema is also changing. Your thoughts.

The way we are looking at things, there are no negative or positive characters, very great characters. A person is not a hero or a heroine, especially with the digital platform coming in. Every character plays a very important role.

So what do you have to say about this change?

I think our industry has been constantly changing. You always are on a lookout for telling newer stories and newer manners, and, I think that’s a process that’s always been there. Currently, we are going through a journey where, for the last couple of years have not been that great as a whole for the industry. So it also tells us to introspect and we are always looking out for newer stories to say. So that’s a constant process.

It’s not that it’s just happened, it’s an OTT boom. And the OTT is coming out with ideas, which we have probably not thought of a few years back. And, especially this story. The way it has turned out to be from moving from one end. Who would have thought at the end that this could have happened? So the storytelling is also changing.

So what do you have to say when these kind of ideas come to the director and the director comes to you with the idea to cash on him?

So it’s a process of constant innovation. So, whether it’s for feature films or OTT, the challenge is how how you can tell newer stories. But, sadly, I don’t see much innovation on the the feature films that is on the theatre films. It will happen. It’s something that you constantly strive for. So it’s not that it’s going to happen overnight, but, yes, it is going to happen.

And, in terms of OTT, yes, it gives you an opportunity to tell stories that earlier you would have thought that you don’t know whether it’s going to work at the box office. OTT has also given you the opportunity to make longer stories. I mean, content that you can’t say in 2 hours, stories that you can’t say in 2 hours. And if you have 6 hours of story, then you know it helps in developing it as an OTT series.

And what do you have to say when the story comes to you? What was your reaction to it, like, when this narration was done for the entire story? Did you say that when part of it?

We definitely thought it would, and it’s like getting a lot of love from the audiences. In an earlier interview today, somebody was telling me that it’s got a mixed response. So I don’t read the reviews as such, but the feedback that we’ve got has been excellent. It’s been tracking very well on the platform within just 3 days.

What is the next idea that you’re going to be encashing on?

We’ve got a couple of series coming out. We’ve got Khakee Chapter Two coming out early next year. Then, we’ve got Special Ops 2 coming out. And, there are a couple of films that are in the pipeline, but it’s too early to speak about them right now.