Navigating the narrow strait between fiction and documentary

The Indian director Hansal Mehta talks about making a political thriller that addresses a cause he strongly believes in.

Rajkumar Yadav, standing at left, in the biopic Shahid. Courtesy UTV Motion Pictures

A new Bollywood biopic is hitting cinemas. Shahid, out tomorrow in the UAE, is about the outspoken human rights activist and lawyer Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in Mumbai in 2010.

Why did you choose this story?

Though there was very little information available on Shahid Azmi, I found the seeds for an interesting story there and that is why I went with it. I believe the audience will be engaged by the story. It is very entertaining.

What were some of the challenges you faced while making the film, especially since there was so little information readily available?

One of the biggest challenges was to bring forth his motivation in the space of two hours. How do you remain true and yet manage to make an entertaining film? And there was the ever-present concern of doing justice to the character and ensuring that no liberties are taken in translating it into a film.

In trying to stay true to the story, is there a risk of making a documentary not a feature?

I am a filmmaker, not a documentary maker. I speak the language of films. I believe a biopic is also a story to tell as much as is fiction.

How did you find Rajkumar Yadav?

I had actually not even seen Rajkumar’s work when he was recommended to me. But the moment I met him, I realised he would be the best person to play Shahid.

It has been said that a lot of the dialogue in the film was improvised during filming. Is that true?

Improvisation is a very overrated term. It doesn’t mean that you do whatever you want to.

Improvisation means that you work within the boundaries given to you. It means creating a world within a world. I gave my actors the space to do that. But that doesn’t mean that they can do anything they want and expect me to just piece it together. So there was improvisation, yes, but it was all within the boundaries of what we needed ­delivered.

• Shahid starring Rajkumar Yadav, K K Menon and Tigmanshu Dhulia is out tomorrow in UAE cinemas