Bollywood star Varun Dhawan says new film Bawaal is perfect for a global audience

The globe-trotting movie was shot in locations including India, the Netherlands and Poland

The creative team behind new Bollywood film Bawaal hope it becomes a film for the ages.

Now available for streaming on Amazon Prime, it is a complex drama following the tumultuous relationship of Ajay (Varun Dhawan) and Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor) as they try to salvage their marriage while travelling across Europe to learn about the horrors of the Second World War.

Love as a battlefield is a key theme of Bawaal and it's deftly handled by director Nitesh Tiwari, the filmmaker responsible for Dangal (2016), currently the highest-grossing Indian film in history.

“We have been very careful in what aspects to choose from the Second World War that affects the journey of the characters,” Tiwari tells The National at the global launch of the trailer in Dubai.

“The most challenging moments for me were recreating those portions of history because we wanted to be not only factually correct, but also correct in terms of production and costume design.

“Creating something of that magnitude is never easy and there was no way we could afford to go wrong.”

Dhawan, who was also in Dubai with Kapoor and veteran producer Sajid Nadiadwala, says the varied tones in the film kept him on his toes throughout the shoot.

“It demanded a lot from me. There are a lot of emotions in this film, from humour and love to agony and tragedy,” he says.

“The film keeps shifting, which is a lot like life actually, and that's also what made it fun to do.”

Bawaal could also become a career breakthrough for Kapoor.

She describes how her family connections – her father is film producer Boney Kapoor and her mother the late actress Sridervi – had no sway in her arduous casting process.

“I tried really hard to convince them to take me in the film. I chased them and stalked them quite a bit,” she says.

“But when I finally got in the film every day was special to work with such talented people.”

Bawaal, her seventh film release to date, also finds Kapoor taking on a new kind of role.

“One of the most important things that I had to understand about my character was that she was a married woman,” she says. “That changes things a lot because you [have to] think about the dynamics with your co-star."

Bawaal is not only Tiwari's biggest film in terms of scale, it also continues his knack for tackling wider societal and moral issues.

“The film is really about the way we look at relationships, whether it is between husband and wife or parents and children, and how we are governed by our values, which can be moral and partly immoral at times,” he says.

“And our values can also change. Who we were 10 years ago is not who we are now and Bawaal is really about all of that.”

And these lessons are timeless, Dhawan says.

The choice of the Second World War as a backdrop is no gimmick he says, because some of the psychological lessons from that era remain relevant today.

“It took me almost a year to find a script that would excite me enough to get back on screen again,” he says.

“Bawaal has the kind story that I feel is spicy enough for today's world and that it needs to be made now and made right.”

As for eschewing the traditional big cinema release for online streaming, Nadiadwala says the move has its benefits.

“The best experience for a film like this is when you can show it to the world on the same day,” he says.

“And this decision is a team effort where we sit down and look at the content and we just felt that it requires a global release.”

Regardless of the reception, Nadiadwala says ambitious films like Bawaal are needed to ultimately guard Bollywood from complacency.

“I can make other kinds of films that are much easier, but I do like to have something like Bawaal also on my plate,” he says.

“I need this kind of cinema to survive for how many more decades to come.”

Bawaal streams on Amazon Prime Video from July 21