Sui Dhaaga maker Sharat Katariya: My characters come from personal experiences

MUMBAI: The Varun Dhawan-Anushka Sharma starrer Sui Dhaaga released two years ago on this day. Director Sharat Katariya, opening up on his creative process, says the characters in his films come from his personal experiences.

The 2018 release "Sui Dhaaga" was Katariya's third directorial after "10ml Love" (2010) and "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" (2015). He also contributed as a writer in films like "Bheja Fry" (2007) and "Titli" (2015).

Katariya, who also penned dialogues in "Fan" (2016) and "Befikre" (2016), has carved his niche for crafting critically acclaimed commercial entertainers that celebrate realism, as a writer and filmmaker.

"I was born in Delhi. The characters normally come from personal experiences of growing up. All these characters whether its Prem and Sandhya (Dum Laga Ke Haisha) or Mauji and Mamta (Sui Dhaaga) or other characters, like their parents, their family, their neighbours, whatsoever you write or you are influenced from, are people who you come across," Katariya said.

"Most of these people in the films are the characters one has come across in life while growing up," he added.

His films always make a subtle social commentary.

Asked if he tries to bring social change through his works, Katariya said: "When you write you are not thinking about all these things. You write what you feel for, that's the primary thing. Anything that you feel for has a resonance to the social environment and it automatically reflects in the script."

"One doesn't start from there, one starts from an incident or something that inspires or moves you. That's where is the beginning," he added.

Citing the example of "Dum Laga Ke Haisha", Katariya says the film's genesis was seeing the character of a wife winning a championship.

"I was not thinking of social relevance or anything like that. I was thinking of a story, but when you are developing characters, a woman is overweight and a man is thin and it's a marriage which is not working, then automatically all the social conflicts and stigmas will automatically come into the story," he said.

"Because the characters grow up in real environment and they have their own prejudices and conflicts and hence the social commentary."

He added that it was the same with "Sui Dhaaga".

"I saw a man under a tree, who was working as a tailor to make ends meet and from there it began. These are the real people, these are the real heroes. For me, he is a superhero. Superheroes are not just about flying in the air. Superheroes are also about making their ends meet in the most difficult scenarios," the filmmaker said.

"That's how it came in and became social commentary. The idea is never to manipulate writing in a way that it becomes that," he summed up.