After dabbling in non-fiction all his career, creator Nishant Nayak harboured a dream of making a fiction show. He says it took him and his team almost five years to bring the show to screen. The Amazon Prime Video series Do You Wanna Partner, starring Diana Penty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Jaaved Jaaferi, Nakuul Mehta, and Shweta Tiwari, among others, was, he shares, a product of the pandemic. In conversation with mid-day, Nayak discusses how he and Mithun Gangopadhyay developed the idea, did intense research of the beer industry, and how much the script changed from start to finish.
Excerpts from the interview.
What made you move from non-fiction to fiction?
To be honest, I haven’t moved. It was just something that I wanted to try out. I still work as a non-fiction director. Actually, I wrote this story as a pandemic experiment. I was always keen to direct an original story. [I wanted] to either do a short film or a long-form content. My cinematographer [Mithun Gangopadhyay, co-creator] had written a couple of concepts and this is the one that I really liked. So, we decided to develop it together. We gave ourselves a month to write the entire story. Then we shopped it around. It took us about nine months to get through to Dharmatic Entertainment and then they got Amazon [Prime Video] on board. Then we set up a writers’ room. Non-fiction is still very exciting and I enjoy it.
Jaaved Jaaferi in ‘Do You Wanna Partner’
How long did it take for you to convince others — producers, platforms, and actors — about the story?
I was actually involved in narrating it to a lot of the cast before we finally went on floors in May last year. But it took us about eight to nine months. The whole story of these two girls, who want to enter a male-dominated industry, having to create a fictitious male partner because of the circumstances, I think caught everyone’s ear. Initially, it was set in the US and there was a bit of a video game component. I wanted to localise it, and craft beer is something that we both identified with. In all, it has taken five years from the time we put pen to paper to you actually seeing the episode today.
How has the response been?
We’ve been getting a mixed response from outsiders and friends from the industry. I think the whole one-liner really appealed to everyone. People have liked that we integrated a mixed cast from across movies and television. People have found the heightened sense of disbelief. Some people wanted something a little closer to realism. There’s been a little bit of critique on that. But largely I think people have really enjoyed seeing Diana and Tamannaah in a series. The fact that Jaaved Jaaferi is also back in a very endearing role [has got love]. We also got a lot of positive response to Jaaved Jaaferi’s role. I had directed Shark Tank India, so it’s sort of continuing the whole entrepreneur cycle. The music was also well liked.
(L-R) Diana Penty and Tamannaah Bhatia in ‘Do You Wanna Partner’
How much of the original idea changed in the five years?
I think the essential plot of Vikram Walia [played by Neeraj Kabi] having a connection to Tamannaah’s father’s business failing, and that becoming a mission for her to see through, stayed the same. Laila [played by Shweta Tiwari] was originally a sketchy male financier. I am glad Shweta ended up playing it. A few small characters and turning points changed. I have no regrets about what changed. It had an army of good hearts behind it.
How did you think about teaming up Penty and Bhatia for the show?
They both came in cold because they are from very different backgrounds. Tamannaah is a huge star in the industry. For Diana, it was her first OTT show. We did readings and workshops together. They both loved the story. And it worked
on camera.
How much research into the beer industry did you do for the show? And how much beer did you consume while making it?
We needed a cool product. Initially, we were planning to go with video games. Mithun, my co-creator, had also been a hobby homebrewer years ago. He was familiar with the process and we found the right experts along the way. We, of course, consumed a lot of beer while writing it. The story of Bira was a huge inspiration. Dharma put us in touch with a very fine researcher, Dipti Kharude, who knew a lot of people in the beer community. During the research, we learnt that there were not many female brewers in the Indian market. Then we got in touch with Lynette Pires [from the Women Brewers Collective], who is based in Bengaluru. That was an interesting insight we came across. Since then there have been about six to seven female master brewers. Two of them are consultants for multiple brands. In fact, Pratik Kansara [of Rolling Mills] was the main consulting brewer who helped us on the shoot.
Nishant Nayak’s filmography
. ‘The Traitors’
. ‘Shark Tank India’
. ‘Fear Factor’
. ‘MTV Unplugged’
. ‘Masterchef’
. ‘Coke Studio’
. ‘Top Model’
In the non-fiction space
Nishant Nayak is currently preparing to shoot the next season of ‘Shark Tank India’. “I am also looking at fiction sometime next year. But now, something exciting in non-fiction is happening.”