Pushkar-Gayatri on not writing Vikram Vedha as protagonist vs antagonist: We're not reinventing that wheel

Pushkar and Gayatri are narrating the story of Vikram Vedha once again, and this time in Hindi. After the 2017 hit starring R Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi in the lead roles, the filmmaker duo roped in Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan to play the titular roles. The film, which is inspired by the popular folklore of Vikram Betaal, redefines the fact that there's no black and white, everything is grey.

During a group media interaction, OTTplay asked Pushkar and Gayatri about how they went about writing their characters when there's no ideal antagonist as such. To which Pushkar stated, "So, in the writing itself, that split between a protagonist and antagonist is based on a very western idea of storytelling. That is not something that is there all over the world. There are many cultures where the storytelling is very different, and India is one of those places. You take any of our actual mythologies in your great epics, right? They are never written as protagonists versus antagonists, and they are not written in three-act structures. These are concepts which we have learned over the years from Western storytelling. So it is not something we are breaking, but the system that is breaking it. This is something that we are all aware of. I mean, it's because we grew up on these stories. It's just tapping into that vein. So we're not reinventing the wheel. We just found that one little wheel, which was lying on the side, and said, 'Nobody's using it, let's try to quickly pull it towards us'."

On being quizzed about the pressure they felt on remaking Vikram Vedha in Hindi, Pushkar revealed, "I think it was pretty much the same pressure as making any film. You still have the same thing; you have to finish that much shooting on a certain day. We have Hrithik on board. But yeah, you still have to finish that scene on that day. You don't say, 'Okay, I'll just get in the next day.' So, actually, in that way, all filmmakers and all directors face the same battles. I don't think it's an adaptation. One thing they say no to is that if you're remaking the film, a lot of our friends ask, 'Why are you guys working so hard for this? You've already done it once; you just have to shoot it again'."

While Gayatri added, "Then there's no fun for us either. Like, the whole idea was to reinterpret the text with a new set of actors, and that journey has been beautiful. What happens when the film comes is another thing, but the journey has been wonderful, (including) discovering different facets of how to play it and how to interpret it."

Pushkar went on to say, "One thing about Vikram Vedha is that, based on the trailer, many of you will expect it to be an action film. But what was more complicated for us was the storytelling part of it. There are these scenes between Vikram and Vedha, not the action bits but the narrative scenes, which are complex from an emotional beat. So the beat keeps changing every minute you have like a new beat has to be played. Those were the complicated things to shoot. Drama is the most important point of any film. That is something we spent a lot of time on. So in that way, I think it's the process of making a film that has a certain joy to it, a certain effort that you need to put into it, and all that was there in spades."

Vikram Vedha is hitting the big screens on September 30, 2022.