At the trailer launch of Bawaal, Prime Video’s upcoming Hindi-language film, the cast and creators talked about the film, their personal experiences, and more.
Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, Bawaal is a romantic drama that will release on Amazon Prime Video on July 21. It follows a history teacher in a small town, Ajay, and the beautiful girl he marries, Nisha.
The newly-married couple goes to Europe on honeymoon, where Ajay, played by Varun Dhawan, and Nisha, played by Janhvi Kapoor, learn the history of World War II as well as a few important life lessons.
While talking about the film, director Nitesh Tiwari stated, “I genuinely believe that this is the story that needed to be told.” He hoped that like his other works, this film will also have a positive impact on the audience.
He was careful not to give away anything crucial about the plot, but he did talk about the idea behind it. According to him, it is people’s values in life that govern their actions. However, these values keep changing with time as people grow.
“There are certain life experiences that change us. Bawaal is all about that, about relationships, about life, about life experiences, coming of age, and much more. It’s quite a layered piece.”
On the subject of the challenges that he faced while working on the film, he said, “The most challenging moments were recreating portions of history because we wanted to be correct not only factually but also in terms of production design as well as the costumes and every detail possible.
That is something that took a lot of research for my production design team and my costume team. Trying to recreate something of that magnitude is never easy, and there was no way we could afford to go wrong.”
He also addressed the question of why he specifically included references to Hitler in the film, “It’s not just about Hitler…Everything, every incident has been carefully chosen, which can have an impact on the overall arc, because WW II is humongous; there is so much that has happened.
You cannot take everything, so you have to pick and choose things, which probably impact the journey of your characters, and that is precisely why it has been taken. You cannot not have Hitler in World War II. He also happens to be there.”
Additionally, Producer Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, who has also written the story of the film, spoke about how her experiences with her husband, Nitesh Tiwari, in Europe have inspired the experiences of the characters in the film.
Nitesh Tiwari’s father was a history teacher who wanted to visit all the places where the major events of World War II took place. He never got to do that, but his ideas about relationships inspired his daughter-in-law when she penned this story. She added, “This (Bawaal) is an ode to Nitesh’s dad, who is no more.”
When Varun Dhawan spoke about playing the role of Ajay, he stated, “In this film, I’m playing something very, very different from what I am in real life.” However, he also said, “I’ve never been more confident about how a film will be received by people than I am about Bawaal.”
He believes that this film will teach a lot to the audience, as at a time like this, when most things lack authenticity, “this film is very important because it’s closest to the truth of life at the moment.”
Dhawan spoke about how it was on his bucket list to work with Tiwari at least once. Thanks to the director, who made him feel comfortable, the role was not challenging for Dhawan.
Apart from Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor also praised the director, “When you have someone like him guiding you, it changes you in a certain way because you start believing in yourself a lot more when a man like that shows confidence in you. That’s the journey that I went on through this film.
I learned so much about the kind of person that I want to be, looking at him (Nitesh Tiwari) and the way he would treat people, the kind of films that I want to make, and the kind of work that I believe in. Not just him, but even seeing Varun’s work ethic. For so many reasons, this film is so special. ”
When Manish Menghani, director of content licensing at Prime Video India, was asked about what the audience could expect from this film, he talked about his belief that this film is not bound by geography or language, which is why it is being released in 200 countries on the same day.
“We believe that this is an unconventional love story. It’s told starting from the heart of India; the heart of this character is in India, but it takes him on this journey through many countries in Europe, where there are life-changing experiences that happen.”
It was a unanimous decision to release the film on Prime Video. According to Producer Sajid Nadiadwala, “We had a great partner like Amazon. It’s overwhelming to see this film being released in 200 countries, and not a better partner than them.”
Here is the trailer of Bawaal:
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