Dobaaraa is NOT the remake of Spanish film Mirage: Director Anurag Kashyap explains why

In the long and vibrant filmography of Anurag Kashyap, Dobaaraa is likely to feature as an anomaly of sorts. The upcoming sci-fi mystery is the filmmaker’s first remake to date, retelling the 2018 Spanish film Mirage that follows a young mother’s ‘race-against-time' battle to unravel an important truth. Taapsee Pannu, Kashyap’s Manmarziyaan actor, headlines the rivetting film with Rahul Bhat, Pavail Gulati, and others playing principal roles in Dobaaraa (the title also refers to the timestamp of 2:12 or Do:Baaraa).

And yet, the film isn’t technically a remake. In his recent interview with a YouTube channel, Anurag Kashyap divulged that he had been involved with the Indian adaptation even before the Spanish original went on floors. He would share in the interview that it was Taapsee Pannu’s association with Spanish filmmaker Oriol Paulo, who also wrote and directed the 2016 film The Invisible Guest (which would be remade as Badla later on), that helped the Indian team acquire the rights to the script and work on the adaptation prior to the making of the Spanish film Mirage.

"Hindi cinema is currently controlled by 2nd gen filmmakers who have grown up in trial rooms," says Dobaraa director Anurag Kashyap 

Kashyap goes on to add that he hadn’t watched the Spanish original when he began working on Dobaaraa, making it a one-of-a-kind remake.

“In essence, this is like taking a story and a script to adapt it in a different language and the two films look very different (from one another). The Spanish film released in 2019 but my screenwriter, Nihit Bhave, had completed the first draft of Dobaaraa much before that but I wasn’t involved with the project yet. It was only later, during the making of Saand ki Aankh, that I read the script and decided on making it because I wasn’t able to make the stuff I wished to,” shares Anurag Kashyap in the interview.

But did he eventually watch the Spanish film? If yes, what did he make of it?

“I watched Mirage when it came out in 2018 but the film didn’t work for me as much as the script did. But the filmmaker in me spotted that the issue is in the edit room and I didn’t want anyone to put that pressure on me – I wanted to make the film my way,” he adds, describing the process.

Dobaaraa has been produced by Ekta and Shobha Kapoor, Sunil Khetrapal, and Gaurav Bose with Nihit Bhave (also writer of the 2020 Anurag Kashyap film Choked) penning the screenplay.