Team Kuttey Heaps Praises on Debutant Director Aasmaan Bhardwaj

Kuttey is an ambitious debut project. It stars an ensemble cast of Tabu, Arjun Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kumud Mishra and Radhika Madan. It promises a tale of twists and turns and resembles the dangerous, dark energy we last saw in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey (2009). Team Kuttey will have you know that first-time director Aasmaan Bhardwaj faced this creative challenge fairly well. 

Aasmaan’s father Vishal Bhardwaj, who co-wrote, co-produced and composed music for the film, talked about how Aasmaan not only finished the film within the given budget, but also ended up saving a few days of shoot time. In ‘proud father’ mode, the acclaimed director shared that he thought Kuttey was tremendously difficult to execute – “80% of the film was shot at night. There’s a lot of rain, [...] a lot of action and they were shooting in difficult locations, even though they could have easily shot it in Film City.” The director was convinced he will have to swoop in at some point and sort out a mess. “I thought I will have to go on set one day because I thought he’ll have a tussle with Arjun or Tabu will call me with abuses. [...] But I didn’t go to set at all,” said Bhardwaj. 

“I’m of his age but I can’t imagine directing Naseer saab or Kumud sir or anyone!” said Radhika Madan, who stars in the film. “On the set, I was watching and learning from him. He was on schedule, giving his 100%, taking risks and getting shots that were so difficult. It was like makkhan (butter),” the actress said. 

Arjun Kapoor said that the film had made an impact on him right when it had first been narrated to him. “The fact that I saw him (Aasmaan) narrating a film that he has written with Vishal sir with such clarity, I was convinced that this boy knows what he wants to do with it,” said Kapoor. “Aasmaan pushed me as a human being as well, in a very collaborative way. He was really the captain of the ship.” 

Directing was a learning curve for Aasmaan, who shot the toughest sequence of the film in his first few days despite being warned about doing so. “I got overwhelmed the first day of the shoot because when I had written the script, approached everyone and done the budgeting, I thought this is a small-budget film,” he said. However, when he reached the set, he was blown away by the sheer scale of the production. Directing such a star cast on his first project was also a challenge, with Aasmaan struggling to shout ‘Cut!’ when icons like Tabu were performing. “But after the first cut, it became okay,” said the young director. 

Kuttey releases in theatres on January 13.