Filmmaker Meghna Gulzar and actors Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran on their film Daayra, portraying crime onscreen and navigating AI. They were in conversation with Priyanka Sinha Jha, COO, The SCREEN AcademyPriyanka Sinha Jha: Meghna, in Daayra, you don’t take sides. You show two sides of two protagonists. Between Team Ajooni and Team Raman, which do you align with?Kareena Kapoor Khan: It’s not about taking sides. It’s about believing in the film that Meghna wanted to make and doing justice to it. That is what we hope the discussion is going to be after the lights come on because it’s going to make you think.Prithviraj Sukumaran: Why Daayra appealed to me, at least as a script, is the fact that I do not agree or disagree with the entirety of Raman or Ajooni. And that is a space within which the film exists in its whole form. The film takes you through a journey where equal weightage is given to both sides. In the end, the question is posed to you. If we have been successful in making the film we wanted, then you won’t be able to pick a side easily. That is what crime, punishment and the deliverance of justice is about today.Do films owe a social responsibility to make the audience aware?Meghna: If there is a responsibility on cinema to propagate certain things, it is also the responsibility of the audience to follow what the cinema is propagating. It’s not like we depict only the malaise of society. We also make films on family values. Can we ensure everybody imbibes that? We are blamed for inspiring the negative. However, when we depict the negative, it’s actually to fix it.Prithviraj: Cinema is a powerful medium. But we also need to be aware that cinema is more often than not a reflection of society. The need to make it is born out of the reality that we live in today. I hope we reach a time where a film like Daayra is redundant.Story continues below this adKareena: Daayra is going to be one film that is going to stand the test of time. People will watch it again and have different emotions at different times. The film does mirror society. But it is the need of the hour.Meghna, how did you find your Ajooni and Raman?By the time we finished the script, one thing was clear that they were complete opposites and yet complemented each other in an ironic way… one cannot exist without the other. Ajooni disarms with a smile. Raman is scowling all the time.I knew I wanted Ajooni to be represented different from the way we have female police officers in our films. I had the liberty because she was not going to be in her uniform since she is a special investigator. That’s when Kareena came into my mind.It was important for me that Daayra is made up of region neutral characters. Raman is a name you can have in the North, South, East or West of India. So I wanted a Raman not from Hindi cinema. The minute I knew that, his name popped into my head.Story continues below this adPrithvi, you were busy with a film at the time and changed your mind after you heard the script. Did she give you an offer that you couldn’t refuse?She did, actually. When I got the call to meet Meghna Gulzar, I had just said yes to SS Rajamouli sir’s Varanasi. I knew I was going to be tied up the next couple of years. I also had other commitments in Malayalam cinema. So I didn’t think this was going to work out for me. But I wanted to meet her anyway and was prepared to say a polite ‘no’. But Meghna didn’t even ask me if I had the time. She just started giving me a well-structured narration.As artistes, it’s not often you are presented with an opportunity to be part of something you feel is also your responsibility. With a film like Daayra, it’s my responsibility to use my craft to facilitate that. Luckily for me, the timelines shifted a bit and things aligned.Kareena, you turned producer with The Buckingham Murders, although you had said you wouldn’t produce.Story continues below this adThat was a one-off thing. Acting is probably the only thing I’m good at.You have been a glamour icon. When you get a gritty film like Daayra, how do you approach that?Kareena: An actor shouldn’t be put in any sort of a box. It has never been about sticking to this glamorous image. The image is always built because of what people think you are. But as an artiste, it’s my duty to explore different parts, which I have always done. Now, I’m choosing quality over quantity. And I don’t have plans of retiring anytime soon and have a lot to explore.When you have women in front of and behind the camera, and in various other capacities, does that change the atmosphere on the set?Story continues below this adPrithviraj: As an actor, it doesn’t make a difference to me. There are good directors and bad directors. Regarding perspectives, it’s an age-old cliche now… the man envisioned by a woman. I’m assuming there is something to it because I have done another film in Malayalam called Koode, directed by Anjali Menon, and my wife tells me there is so much of Joshua she has seen in me in real life. I’m assuming that has got a lot to do with how Anjali conceived the character and what she saw in me as an actor.Meghna: Women are more organised. So when there are more women on set, it runs like a well-oiled machine.Kareena: Women also multitask. We can be homemakers, actors, run a business, do our finances, send our children to school. There’s nothing a woman can’t do.Also Read – Daayra movie review: Prithviraj impresses, film doesn’t know what to do with Kareena KapoorStory continues below this adIn Daayra, there was no exaggeration in the reenactment of the crime. How did you decide what to keep and what not to keep in that particular scene?Meghna: I was clear I wanted to make men uncomfortable when they saw that. I know that happens because I have editors who are men and I could keep working on that sequence for hours and they would want to leave the room. So that was intentional.Every director brings a certain culture to their set. What was Meghna Gulzar’s set like?Prithviraj: I studied in an Army school and it was like going back to school. But she is easily one of the most, if not the most, academic, judicious filmmaker I have worked with. I don’t know if I can pick a filmmaker who is more prepared than Meghna.Story continues below this adBut the magic is not about being prepared. Meghna goes to a location with her team of assistants and shoots the entire scene on a phone or a digital camera first. Then she edits the scene and the screen grabs make her storyboard. So when we go there for a shoot, she already has a reference. This seems like a rigid process but the magic is that she has this at her disposal.Kareena: That’s also an art.Kareena, you have spoken about how you had to rein in the energy.Kareena: Because of the character that it was. I have always believed that the director is the captain of the ship. There’s nobody who knows the ship more than the director.Because you feel creatively safe when you have somebody to steer you?Story continues below this adKareena: The way she respects her work and the kind of energy and effort she is putting in, you know you just have to deliver.In the age of AI, do you see yourself at some point licensing to generate your likeness?Meghna: I’m actually old school and a purist and maybe boring because I have always believed that cinema will never get replaced even when television or streaming came. Similarly, I believe that AI will never replace ‘HI’ — human instinct, human intelligence. It is merely a tool. At the end of it, it is emotionless. So after a point, it’s going to start doing the wrong things when you have run out of prompts.Prithviraj: I don’t think you can fight artificial intelligence. We’ll have to adapt to it. But in the broader picture, it’s going to ultimately give more value to original ideas and humane elements in stories.Kareena Kapoor: I don’t know exactly the way I feel. Right now, as a woman, the only thing I can see is the way it’s being used online negatively. That is very disturbing. Meghna Gulzar, Kareena Kapoor and Prithviraj at Expresso. (Expresso photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)RAPID FIRE WITH ANANT GOENKAKareena Kapoor KhanThe one Meghna Gulzar film that motivated you to take up this one.Talvar.Is being a star today more or less competitive than it was when you started your career?There was something more electric about being a star in the 2000s.The one brand you endorse that you actually use.Fizzy Goblet.One difference and similarity between you and Saif as parents.I am the stricter one, he’s more chill. We are similar in terms of values.… as actors.I’m instinctive. Saif likes to prepare.One career advice you credit Karisma for?Hard work and perseverance because that’s what the ’90s were about.Of your two kids, who will be the cricketer and who the actor?That’s not for me to say, but Tim the cricketer and definitely Jeh the actor.The last time you felt being a celebrity came in the way of you being a parent?It’s a constant battle because sometimes at the airport they see ads with me pouting or frowning and Tim says, ‘Why are you doing that?’ I don’t know when my ads show up and I don’t know if I want them to see too much.The one Malayalam film you wish you were approached for?I would love to get an opportunity to work with Anjali Menon.One director you haven’t worked with and want to?Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Zoya Akhtar. Kareena Kapoor Khan at Expresso. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)Meghna GulzarOne thing you have admired about Prithviraj.His technical finesse shows up in the actor that he is. It’s immaculate.Your next topic for a film.Now, I need to do something happy.One easy and one difficult thing about working with these actors:IrrfanEasy: He did everything and made me look damn good. Difficult: I still don’t know which side of Talvar’s perspective hebelieved in.VickyEasy: The connection is just superb. Difficult: After Sam Bahadur, it’s difficult to find a role larger than that.DeepikaEasy: She will go beneath the surface. Difficult: She has a bigger OCD than me.AliaEasy: Spontaneous and instinctive to the point where she can hurt herself. That’s also the difficult part.TabuEasy: The performances are a given. Difficult: Too accomplished for me to be telling her what to do.SushmitaEasy: What you see is what you get. Very affable. Nothing difficult.Kareena and PrithvirajEasy: their proficiency as actors. Difficult: The immense trust they put in me is scary.One insight you have gained about the audience from these films:TalvarThey are more intelligent than we give them credit for.RaaziI didn’t see layers the way they did.ChhapaakIt can be difficult to convince them to see a film they think is a difficult watch.Sam BahadurEverybody wants a hero. Prithviraj Sukumaran at the 16th edition of Expresso. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)Prithviraj SukumaranJustice to you is?Justice has perspectives. That is what the film is about.The one secret ingredient of Malayalam cinema that Bollywood should learn from?How informal we are as an industry. Contrary to popular belief, Malayalam cinema does not get made in 15 days in Rs 5 crore. We do shoot Rs 100-120 crore films over 150 days. But even then, there is an informality to it. That lends a tangible, humane element to the cinema. A director can simply call an actor to narrate a subject. Here I have learned that you first contact the agency, which will speak to your manager who then convinces the actor to meet the director.Also Read – ‘I literally have to snatch phones’: Kareena Kapoor on device rule for Taimur and JehYou have the magical ability to force every Indian to watch one Malayalam film in all languages. Which film would you pick and why?My Dear Kuttichathan. It’s the first 3D film ever made in India. I think the first 70mm film and the first technicolour film in India were also made in Malayalam. It foreshadowed so much about how this craft is going to evolve. And I am a sucker for things like that.One way Meghna and Rajamouli are similar and poles apart.There is a lot of similarity in the way they make actors feel invested in the film and the characters. One way they are not is the number of days Meghna takes to shoot a film is more or less the number of days Rajamouli sir will shoot a scene in.The first time you felt tempted to step outside of Malayalam cinema.I have never been tempted to step away from any cinema or into any. For me, it has just been about the next story that interests me.