Get Set Baby director Vinay Govind: I haven’t done an emotionally-charged film like this before | Exclusive

With his first two movies – Kili Poyi and Kohinoor, director Vinay Govind proved he was a filmmaker to look out for, due to his fresh ideas. However, it has taken him a decade to come up with his third venture, Unni Mukundan-starrer Get Set Baby, which is set to hit theatres on February 21.

In a quick chat with OTTplay, Vinay tells us the reason for the delay, the challenges of making a movie that addresses a sensitive topic, what to expect from the film and working with Marco star Unni Mukundan.

Also read: Unni Mukundan: The reason I got into films was to express myself and to do that you have to... | Exclusive 

Why did it take you a decade to do your third film, Get Set Baby? Especially, because it’s not the kind of film someone would spend so much time to make.

We had been discussing the idea for Get Set Baby for a long time now. We had initially planned to do it after I had finished directing Thaaram. But because we had to pause the shoot of that film, we thought why not go ahead with this first. It was also at this time that one of the writers, YV Rajesh, had a meeting with Unni Mukundan and while discussing something else, he had also pitched this idea. That got Unni excited.

For this film, we didn’t have a cast in mind; as in we didn’t have a face for the protagonist. When Unni was interested, we felt that itself would lend novelty to the film. He hasn’t done too many breezy romcoms, and I am someone who loves to make as well as watch romcoms.

Get Set Baby is also a shift of genre for me because Kili Poyi was a stoner movie, and Kohinoor was a ‘naadan’ heist film. This would cater to a wider audience and that’s something we deliberately picked, after doing niche genres. Consequently, I had my confusions. But the kind of preparation that I did for Thaaram helped me in this film as well.

Romcom as a genre is popular, but there haven’t been enough hits except for Premalu lately in Malayalam.

I wouldn’t call Get Set Baby a romcom specifically. It begins with a romcom set-up before evolving into a family drama with different shades of emotions. It’s a breezy entertainer. It doesn’t have too many laugh-out-loud comedies. We are dealing with a sensitive, emotional topic revolving around pregnancy in the film and so, it’s a thin line. We have tried to accommodate the humour we can, and the story progresses in a light-hearted way.

The film deals with pregnancy but is directed and written by men. So, what were the steps taken to ensure its authenticity?

We all have women in our lives. So, it’s a topic that we can explore to an extent. I could always just talk to my wife; my textbook for this film was my wife’s delivery. When my wife was carrying, I was going through the whole process of becoming a father. That made it easier for me to connect to the sensitive portions of the film and probably look at it from the men’s perspective. 

So, if someone asked me if this is what I wanted, I would say, ‘Yes, this is what happened when I was at the ICU during the delivery’. That routine of having gone through it with my wife helped me a lot and made it easier for me to tell the actors what I needed for certain scenes.

From the trailer, Get Set Baby seems to have taken the route of presenting this story to an urban audience.

In Kerala, even our urban audience is always rooted. They are not alienated like in a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai. No matter how much we call ourselves urban, we all enjoy going back to our roots – be it to return to our hometown or having homely food. In terms of this movie, our challenge was to strike that balance – to present a romcom while ensuring that it stayed rooted. And it was innate in the story that we wrote.

For both Kohinoor and Kili Poyi, you had used humour effectively to introduce the audience to these different genres, which weren’t popular back then. Do you feel that humour is necessary for Malayali viewers, especially while dealing with serious or sensitive topics like IVF and surrogacy?

Definitely, because we all enjoy humour. We, Malayalis, have a creative flair to find humour even in the darkest places. That’s also what takes our lives forward. When you are narrated an emotionally-draining subject like IVF or surrogacy, which is physically and financially demanding as well, and can be heart-breaking, you need an entertaining thread. A story told with simplicity resonates with a wider audience. That’s the reason for humour in this film – but there’s nothing loud or below the belt.

How does having Unni as the film’s lead, especially after the success of Marco, impact the film?

He had actually completed the shoot of this movie before doing Marco. After the latter’s success, the market has opened up for his movies and it would reach a lot more people. It gives us and our film a huge boost of confidence.

Get Set Baby also has him in a role that he hasn’t done often, even though he has expressed interest.

He has always been an actor, who strives to do something different in every collaboration he associates with. KL 10 Patthu might be the only film where had done something like a breezy comedy. In this film, we were clear that he got to do humour sequences within his comfort zone. Like other actors, Unni is also aware of his strengths and limitations. And when he is trying to do something different, he will naturally have his confusions. In those times, as a director, you just have to guide him and get the best output out of him. He picks up fast and he has done his role really well.

Also, his co-stars in the movie were important. About 90% of the cast were people he hasn’t worked with before and that was refreshing as well. I also haven’t done an emotionally-charged film like this, and this was an exploration for me as well. We figured it all out together.